Major Arcana

The Major Arcana are the primary pantheon of Arcanaspace and reside on the planet Syre.

Structure

The Major Arcana are made of nineteen distinct gods. They are:
The Fool - androgynous god of travelers, mischief, and luck. The Dancer.
The Magician - goddess of magic, power, and transformation. Keeper of the Weave. Confidant and friend of The World.
The High Priestess - goddess of knowledge, mystery, and intuition. The High Priestess is often depicted blindfolded, with a third, brilliant eye on her forehead. Adherents of the High Priestess are members of The Blind Tower, an organization that seeks out any and all knowledge. The High Priestess, along with the Blind Tower, cherishes all knowledge but is tasked with safeguarding or even destroying information they deem too dangerous.
The Emperor - god of beauty, hope, and mentorship (husband of The Empress). The Father.
The Empress - goddess of authority, leadership, and protection (wife of The Emperor). The Mother.
The Hierophant - god of community, cooperation, and craftsmen. Old Ironbones.
The Lovers - gender-neutral gods of love, passion, and oaths. Beloved by all the gods. They Who Tie the Knots that Bind.
The Chariot - goddess of war, conquest, and ambition. Hellion. Our Red-Handed Lady.
The Tower - divine-corpse of loss, doom, and sorrow. The Tower is the divine structure that once connected the world of Syre to the August Palace. Discovered by the old empires, it was the battleground for a war that nearly tore the world apart. When Those Who Ascended climbed the tower and claimed their divinity, the tremendous amount of power released for their collective Ascension ripped the tower apart, starting a chain reaction that rippled through the very fabric of the world. Hundreds of years later, when the inhabitants of Syre had finally begun to recover, they made their way back to where the Tower once stood and found nothing but a plain of shattered glass and wildly dangerous magical phenomenon.
Death - gender-fluid god of endings, the fulfillment of goals, and peace. Death is thought to be the most changed of all the Ascended and is mysterious, even among the Major. It is widely known that Death, unlike all other gods, has many Vessels who serve as Their Shepherds, helping to ferry souls Beyond. The Great Shepherd.
Strength - goddess of might, courage, and resolve. Lady Lionheart.
The Hermit - god of hidden places, grief, and refuge. The Lonely One. Emissary to the Sword.
Justice, Judgement, and The Hanged Man - The three-faced androgynous god of law. Together they are known as Balance. Most adherents of the ternate god believe that true worship of their patron means holding all three of Their aspects equally. Over the years since the Ascension, splinter cults of The Triumvirate Church of Order have cropped up, each embodying only one aspect of the Balance. Both lover and adversary of The Serpant.
Justice - god of law, penance, and fairness
Judgment - goddess of renewal, change, and resurrection
The Hanged Man - god of sacrifice, preservation, and freedom
Temperance - goddess of thieves, patience, and lies. Lady Whisper. Colleague and rival of The Star.
The Serpent - goddess of bargains, righteous retribution, and the downtrodden. Both lover and adversary of Balance. The Sanguine, Blood-Breaker. The Serpent is the enemy of the House of Blood above all others, and has taken on their aspect to understand better and stymy them.
The Star - god of light, truth, and navigation. Colleague and rival of Temperance. Estranged from The Moon.
The Moon - goddess of the night, the hunt, and the ocean (lover of The Sun). Estranged from the Star.
The Sun - goddess of fire, renewal, and medicine (lover of the Moon, twin of The Star).
The World - gender-fluid god of nature, beasts, and the harvest. The heir of She Who Wove the World, They safeguard and tend to Her creation. Sword-Sister, Fey-Walker. Confidant and friend of The Magician.

Divine Origins

And nineteen ascended the tower and brought with them our fury, past the doors of the August Palace to their lords our gods. And where our gods should have been they found nothing but a resounding echoing emptiness. And nineteen took up the abandoned mantles of divinity and in their glory, Ascended. And of the nineteen, one became the very tower they had climbed and in so doing fell from the heavens and wrought destruction upon all the land and the eighteen wept and their tears birthed something new. And now eighteen rule in hope and in misery for they have built their world upon the bones of their sister, but it is a good world, so they shoulder their sins and hold their heads high, gazing out over all they have created.

At the end of the Era of Empty Thrones, nearly 400 years after the start of a never-ending war between the three great empires that dominated Syre, the strongest individuals from across the planet joined forces to end the conflict. To do so, these individuals fought through the forces of each empire and entered the Heavenspire, a magical nexus that connected Syre to the August Palace, home of Arcanaspace's gods. But when the nineteen survivors arrived in the palace, they found nothing save for empty thrones and discarded mantles of godhood. 
Taking on the mantles of godhood for themselves, the nineteen Ascended, as they would be known, became the Major Arcana, the new gods of Syre, though in doing so they shattered the Heavenspire, the Tower, disrupting magic across Arcanaspace and seperating the August Palace from the Prime Material Plane.

Worship

The vast majority of Syred natives worship the Major Arcana. After all, they are Kin's saviors and enders of the terrible Epoch War. Syred acknowledges all of the Major as the gods of Syre, although some may take issue with the portfolio of a particular god. While it is common for every town to have a shrine to the Eighteen, there is usually a specific temple or shrine to a few different gods, traditionally based on geography or culture. Most countries are particularly blessed by a few of the Major, and it is common for individuals to have a more adherent relationship with one or two of the Eighteen based on their profession, the virtue they wish to exemplify, or as a Paladin or Cleric. For example, The Verdance is blessed by The World, Moon, and Hierophant. Those gods have decided The Verdance is a culture in line with their portfolio and values, so pay special attention to the region and bless its people with gifts. However, a coastal town in the eastern Emerald Vale with a large fisherman population would likely have an additional shrine or temple to The Star, the goddess of navigation. A blacksmith living in that same town may have a personal shrine to The Hierophant if he is pious enough. If that town is a member of The Verdance, its Wardens may deepen their worship of The Empress during their term of office.
All wielders of divine magic draw their strength from one of the Eighteen, but many of the Major choose to empower a vessel with a fragment of their power. An Ascended God carves away a piece of their soul and bestows it upon a Kin with an extremely high level of resonance with their portfolio. That Kin becomes a Vessel, chosen of their God, their mortal agent on Syre, and wielder of great power. Some gods ask very little of their Vessel, while others have a close and personal relationship. Vessels are bound by many of the restrictions placed on the gods and must act in accordance with their divine precepts and mandates.
The gods are not jealous and have sworn a binding oath to never use the kingdoms of kin as pawns in their games, as did the Old Gods with the Ternate Empires.

Founding Date

1282

Type

Religious, Pantheon

Alternative Names

The Ascended

Demonym

Ascended

Location

August Palace

Controlled Territories

• August Palace