Church of the Starsea

The Church of the Starsea is an old faith, predating the Ninefold Fane by some 2000 years. It originated in eastern Imora on the coast of what is now Azithal from human contact with the local mer cultures. The Church, though not in its early centuries a particularly missionary-focused faith, spread slowly west from there, finding its greatest foothold in the city-state of Ostrony. In Bresas, it is a widespread religion but rarely a majority one except in Cupros (the seat of its Archbishop), Pelea, Qortas, and parts of Ilan and Ul. 
The gods of the Starsea are terrifying and primal, forces to be placated more than loved; a major tenet of the faith is to expect nothing of the Powers, who lie beyond mortal concerns. Nonetheless, the Church has a mystical aspect with demonstrable practical application - its clergy and devotees are sometimes capable of truly astonishing sorcerous feats, though the price of these is often high.
The Church is organized into bishoprics, with a bishop seated in most cities and large towns in Bresas-Imora. The extent to which a bishop wields any political power depends on the influence the Starsea holds in that area; bishops in the River Duchies, where the Church has little real foothold, can lay claim to little influence save over their faithful, while bishops in Pelea and Qortas have sway comparable to barons or earls. The Archbishop of the Church is elected by a council of bishops and priests, and acts as "first among equals" to congregations of bishops, casting the deciding vote in matters of the interpetation of doctrine. The seat of the Archbishop is in Corcyra, Cupros, where many Starseans travel on pilgrimage and priests regularly convene to seek the Archbishop's wisdom and consult the Great Cathedral's extensive library. The current Archbishop is Benignant III, formerly the Bishop of Myre and at 47 one of the younger persons to hold the seat. She was elected three years ago, in 642 FY, and has a particular reputation for fair judgments and wise interpretation of texts.
Despite its organization and hierarchy, the Church is not a monolith; individual bishops are allowed a certain amount of heterodoxy, and debate is encouraged as a means of expanding thought. Indeed, the Church has no single central holy book, but rather a collection of philosophical, mystical, and revelatory works, many of which contradict each other - Starseans, lay and clergy alike, are often fond of paradoxes and ambiguities and are likely to be comfortable finding their own way through a tangle of strange and difficult texts.
Outsiders to the Church who only know of its fear-inspiring gods are sometimes surprised to learn that Starseans are generally encouraged to practice charity, humility, and community-mindedness, and that there is a vibrant humanist tradition going back at least a dozen centuries. Since, the reasoning goes, the gods cannot be relied on for beneficence, people must be able to rely on each other, and valorize the achievements of art and civilization that will someday be swallowed by time.
For all this, it's possible to stray outside the Church's doctrine. While there is no inquisition as such, the Great Cathedral sometimes employs specialist priests to investigate especially divergent teachings, and grants them the authority to declare a sect anathema. The rift between the Church and Zorcian Voidism is the most well-known instance of this, but there are isolated temples throughout Bresas-Imora that the Church has severed from its body. It should be noted that even in these cases, the Church neither persecutes nor executes heretics, merely removing them from its circle.
The pantheon of Powers recognized by the Church of the Starsea is broad and various, but the 13 most important include:
Aljaz, the Other: Aljaz represents the eternal stranger, the messenger from Outside who bears terrible knowledge. Of all the Powers, he is the one with the most human qualities and the one most likely to manifest in a human shape. Athna, the Eternal: The manifestation of Time, Athna is the embodiment of dissolution and change. Athna is often represented as a mass of shimmering spheres, sometimes interlaced with wheels of corroded bronze. Azez, the Awe: Azez is the frisson of dread that comes from the contemplation of vastness - the deep sky, the deep sea, deep time. Invoked as a reminder of humanity's smallness, Azez is depicted as a great sphere of mouths. Deuzan, the Beast: Deuzan is the infinite appetite of the devouring cosmos, the thing that lies behind the thin veil of civilization and eats people alive. It is represented as a giant boar-like creature with many legs, mouths, and eyes. Kalthaz, the Winter: The spirit of the sunless cold, of what lies beyond the protective circle of fire, Kalthaz heralds ice ages and the death of stars. It is said to be either a bodiless wind full of sleet and ice, or a colossal musk-ox-like beast hung with icicles. Kaukon, the Maw: If Deuzan is the bottomless hunger of the carnivorous cosmos, Kaukon is its mouth - the consuming force from which nothing can escape. Kaukon is ruin and entropy, and is depicted as a vast, tunnel-like mouth ringed with thousands of teeth. Matha, the Conqueror Worm: Matha is a god of earth and death, the worm that tunnels endlessly below and to which all flesh is a feast. It is, unsurprisingly, depicted as a gargantuan worm, blind and toothy, and is sometimes considered the spawn of Kaukon. Nadraz, the Great Serpent: Avatar of everything that kills with poison, Nadraz the Many-Coiled is the fecundity of life that steals life. Represented as a giant snake (often a cobra), Nadraz is accompanied by waves of spiders, frogs, and scorpions. Rauki, the Brume: Rauki is the choking cloud of noxious fumes, the killing dark twin of life-giving fire. It takes the shape of a column of lightless black smoke with enormous, shadowy wings. Saiwaz, the Deeps: Lord of oceans and abysses, Saiwaz is the embodiment of depths, tides, and storms. A colossal, many-limbed kraken, Saiwaz is often the central idol of Starsean altars in coastal settlements. Tharmaz, the Entrails: Tharmaz is the sobering reminder that life is built of slime and meat and shit. Depicted as an inchoate mass of oozing guts and organs, the Lord of Peristalsis is propitiated with lavish feasts left to rot. Ubhan, the Firmament: Twin of Saiwaz, Ubhan is the starry vault of night, the measureless void of the sky. Ubhan is represented by a many-headed, serpentine dragon the color of a nebula, with six vast wings and eyes all along its body. Ubilaz, the Shadow: Ubilaz is the anti-light, the dark underneath civilization, the negating force on the other side of all creation. It is represented as a literal shadow that can take almost any form. Withu, the Forest: Withu is the wilderness, the space outside the protective circle of the city, where the rules of civilization fail. It is considered a kind of parent to Deuzan and Nadraz, and sometimes a mate or partner to Kalthaz. It is depicted as a walking, malevolent tree.