Religion

The setting hosts a pantheon of nine deities capable of sponsoring full clerical and druidic magic. These deities can be communed with by the highest level of divine servants, but the nature of this communication is often impressionistic and even the wisest minds can spend their life time trying to puzzle out the true meaning of a single message from their god. The result is that each faith is subject to having a number of sects within its church, often times with each individual temple following a slightly different interpretation of the will of their god as per the directive of the high priest for that temple. This leads to the most bitter of religious battles at times being between sects of the same faith, rather than between the churches of opposed faiths.

LG - The Father (Justice, Fabrication, Prosperity) - Symbol: Scales against an anvil.

NG - The Mother (Healing, Farming, Hospitality) - Symbol: Chevron against a dove.

CG - The Minstrel (Music, Creativity, History) - Symbol: Lute against a book

LN - The Warrior (Battle, Honor, Order) - Symbol: Sword against a plowshear

TN - The Pale Lady (Death/Life, Luck/Fate, Nature) - Symbol: Tombstone against a living tree

CN - The Anarchist (Chaos, Rebellion, Renaissance) - Symbol: Two six sided dice showing seven pips on the top face

LE - The Dark Maiden (Tyranny, Subjugation, Pain) - Symbol: Cat-of-nine against a gauntlet clad fist

NE - The Corrupter (Disease, Greed, Envy) - Symbol: Coin being pierced by a dagger

CE - The Destroyer (Loss, Devastation, Hopelessness) Symbol: Mother holding a baby silhouetted against flames.

Beings of lesser powers be they demonic, infernal, celestial, great wyrms, demi-gods, or primordial elemental forces are known to exist and cult worship of these beings is not unheard of particularly in remote or unstructured areas. These beings are capable of granting divine spell casting powers relative to their own power and the breadth of their worship, but even the most powerful seem unable to grant beyond 6th level spells. Characters who choose to worship such creatures as a source of divine power will need to actively work to spread the influence of the creature and cult to achieve the upper limits of power, as many such creatures are unable to fuel more than 2nd level spells without a sizable cult following. Note, that these pursuits may not always be warmly welcomed as resident clergy may be very possessive of the influence and position they enjoy.

Gods, Souls and Death

Animals who die and are not magically bonded to sentient/humanoid being cannot be raised. Characters who have denounced the gods cannot be raised. A character who has not selected a specific patron, but has not denied the existence of the gods or their power can be raised at double the normal material cost. Patron deities are declared through a mystic rite with any first level divine spell caster of that deity, with a blood pledge. This patron rite is a formal recognition of the god's divinity/power and acceptance of the relevance of the god's portfolio in the character's life. It is the custom regardless or character origin for the umbilical blood to be used to pledge a child to the god of their mother, a pledge which is only broken by the character formally denouncing the patronage free of duress.

Humans are typically considered to have a soul capable of separating from the body after death and continuing on to the next life. Animals, denouncers of the gods, and the unpatronized who are not called back from death are thought to remain one with the natural world after death, their existence as a being ending and their essence being recycled by nature in the same manner their physical forms are.

ALERT:

The deities of the world are unlikely to interfere directly in the affairs of the world, though it is unknown if they are unwilling or unable to do so. However, any creature capable of granting 3rd level or greater spells is able to be aware of its name or pseudonym being used within normal hearing range of their holy symbol (such as an altar or an amulet a priest might wear) and is capable of refusing to grant a cleric the power to cast a spell on a target which has offended the entity in some way. IE: Blasphemy the cleric's god and the DM can at their descretion that the god is no longer willing to heal your character, even if that player RPs that their character is. Gods and demi gods are powerful creatures, not to be triffled with or defied lightly.

 Myths and Stories: 

A Creation Myth from Nakess…

"The Creation of the Greater and Lesser Undead"