The Syolladver Pantheon is Syoll’s central and official religion. Its members, 16 deities, came into being at the end of the
Shadow Age. Although not every person in Syoll worships all or even one of the Syolladver, they are generally well-known and have places of worship in almost all settlements, regardless of size.
Beginning
Towards the end of the
Shadow Age, the 16 Syolladver arrived. Whether they were created, born, or travelled from another plane is unknown, and various myths have claimed all of the above (as well as other, more bizarre options) as true. Regardless, the arrival of these deities woke the world from its slumber and light reached the land again, causing an event called the
Dawn and beginning a new era, the Days Before Memory. Filling the power vacuum that was created by the
Elphedver's long sleep, the Syolladver took charge of various domains, becoming more powerful as Syollan civilisation bloomed and grew, and for centuries they ruled peacefully.
Conflicts
Only two great conflicts ever arose, but these were both terrible events that deeply marked the history of Syoll.
The Corruption of Phexdis
The first of these conflicts was the
Corruption of Phexdis in the first century CY, an event in which followers of the
goddess of fire irrationally turned to violence. Although most of the important fighting was done on the Material Plane, against her worshippers, the rest of the pantheon made efforts to hold back
Phexdis and prevent her from using most of her powers. After
Phexdis lost her powers through the War of Flames and the purposeful erasure of any mention of her, the Syolladver once again turned to peaceful ruling as the people recovered.
The Doomsday Century
The second conflict, however, was much longer and much more destructive. While more and more discoveries of
Elphead
civilisation were being made throughout the fifth and sixth centuries, knowledge of the
Elphedver’s existence spread, too. Due to the connection between belief and a deities’ power in Syoll, the knowledge of the
Elphedver translated as a type of faith, and the old gods awoke from their long sleep.
While relations between the two factions were tense at first, things seemed to calm down for a short while, and the people of Syoll did not notice any changes. Soon, however, the tensions arose again, and broke out in a violent war between the two divine factions. The conflict had major consequences on the Material Plane as well as on the Outer Planes (where the war was mostly fought) and seemed to be an eternal war. However, when the fighting claimed the life of
Rogna, Syolladver goddess of fog and storms, attempts to negotiate a peace became much more serious. Although a truce and eventually a lasting peace was agreed upon, the Syolladver are generally seen as the winners in the conflict, since they retained their power and their seats as Syoll’s official pantheon.
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