Gods and Religion

Although there are no traditional gods, the concept still exists and carries a similar role. These “Gods” have limited influence over the world, and none of them are older than a form of society. They are, in fact, powerful beings with great connection to the arcana, who gave up their mortal lives in the ascention ritual to give their souls immortality, and some semblance of godly powers. They roam the fabric of the arcana, and attempt to guide people towards their strands. In this way they come to represent those concepts, and are worshipped. Many divine casters find their calling through these gods, and so continue to represent and exemplify them.

Before the gods ascended, they were powerful magical beings, called demigods. These are users of very high magic (think level 15 and above), although not nessicarily in the traditional sense, they could be channeling magical energy to enhance their martial skills. The material plane has several such demigods, most of whom will never even consider attempting immortality. These powerful people are forbidden from holding positions of political power, and usually dedicate themselves to their cause. They can be saviours or scourges of whole cities, and are often worshipped almost as gods because of the great or terrible things they can do.

All gods exist in groups of four, called Tetrads. They ascended together, and usually have some unifying factor, although it may only be slight. It is believed the ritual requires four participants, indeed there are stories of two powerful demigods fighting to the death for the fourth position in a tetrad. It is customary for each of the gods to take a cardinal direction, although it is not clear why.

Gods here are not inherently good or evil; they only care about what they value. This leads some followings to be more “good” than others, but no religion is without its dark sides. The gods will sanction terrible things if it aligns with their values, usually in cases of religious zealousy.

Manifestation

There is no state religion in Tariksan, due to the commonly held knowledge of the arcana. Belief in a particular god of a tetrad is common, as is the idea that only that tetrad is the true gods. However, most towns fail to have a majority of any one religion, so relative peace (or more accurately indifference) is common. A town will usually have the symbol of a tetrad on the gates if it contains a temple to a god contained in it. Usually these gates also have the symbol for the arcana, a spiral compass, if the settlement welcomes any believers in the arcana.

Divine intervention

While mostly the gods work through their followers, they are capable of unleashing raw magical energy from one of the strands they follow. The physical results of this are rarely subtle or complicated, and are rare.

Type

Metaphysical, Divine