Worship in the Known World

> "For Bor would ne'er rise again, and the soul of every Dwarf was lesser for it."
>  - From *The Roots of a Mountain* or *Our Damnation* by Bjern Songmason
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Some allege that in the time before the First Heroic Age, before demons were allowed to infest our plane by arrogant spellweavers, the gods themselves walked the Known World. Regardless if this were ever true, we can say that no gods walk among us now. Whether the gods abandoned us in anger for allowing hellspawn to trample over Creation or they never were anything more than figments of a collective delusion, it cannot be understated the effect that worship of these beings have had upon our world. This treatise will set out to not only outline the faiths of the myriad peoples of the Known World but also analyze them both theologically as well as sociologically.

Perhaps the most faithful people of the World are the Dwarves of the Empire. To list the pantheons worshipped by each individual mountain or cluster would reach far beyond the scope of this work, for each is said to contain dozens of deities in complex and often contradictory arrangements. But there should be no mention of the religious impulse of the Dwarves without noting their collective chief diety; Bor. The legend goes that Bor was a hero-king who fought the giant Hmil, breaking it's hand with his hammer before drowning in the poisonous blood spilling from Hmil's mouth. For slaying Hmil and thus laying foundations for the continent (for the Dwarves believe that the Known World is set upon Hmil's arm), Bor ascended to godhood. But as a god, Bor's work did not end. The story of every Dwarven pantheon inevitably contains a tale of the day Bor appeared before the ancestral gods of a particular cluster and conquered them with hammer, axe or fist, earning their allegiance for eternity. Scholars outside of the Empire's sphere of influence theorize that these aspects of Dwarven myth are a fictionalized account of the first Emperor of Stone conquering his neighbors and establishing the Empire as we know it today.

Moving East across the continent makes Beska the next stop in our pilgrimage. And like all things important to a mortal life, the Humans have found a way to monetize it. The only gods that do not thrive in the Kingdom are those that espouse charity and poverty as core virtues. Most temples have a strict hierarchy system, the better to buy, sell and barter for ranks and, in communities that belive in confession, indulgences are many times more common than penances. Officially,  a council of the Most Holy attend to the royal family's spiritual needs but in reality the Most Holy should perhaps be known as the Most Costly.

From Beska to Telev'r we see a noted shift in sincerity and solemnity. The Elves largely do not believe in any established pantheon or any other concept that would be traditionally known as the "divine." Instead they believe in an unbroken flow of life, death and renewal all centered around a singular Great Spirit. All life: humanoid, beast, even plant life, all originate from within the Great Spirit and upon death, that energy is returned to be cleansed and used again to create new life. Supposedly the only thing that can interrupt this flow of energy is the dreaded spirit plague known as Algandar's. Little is known about this disease and many are quick to dismiss it as nothing beyond superstition. But to see an Elf infected with Algandar's is to be without doubt to its authenticity. It presents differently in different races but in Elves it calcifies the entire body until all that is left is an inert cocoon that is said to be so dense as to trap the spirit forever inside.

To the North we find ourselves among the Orcs who, technically speaking, have the only major monotheistic faith in the Known World. The doubt is cast from an unusual source because while every Orc Camp believes in a singular God ruling all of Creation, the different groups all have opposing conceptions of what this God truly is. Be it Orgrish the Great, Sansaasa the Snake-Eater or Belombos the Belombos, no two versions of the Orc God match each other and all are equally revered or reviled depending on the Camp. Perhaps the only constant feature among all versions of the Orc God is the emphasis on personal excellence and the taboo of slavery.

Beyond this survey of the major peoples of the Known World, countless gods hold dominion in the far corners of the map. Demon Lords rule on Ash Isle and Corsair Princes hold watery courts in The Claws. To name them all would take not a single book but a series of encyclopedias. But we would be remiss to fail to mention the Cult of the Twelve. Perhaps the only faith to extend beyond traditional borders, it would be reductive to call the Cult a "Kobold religion" the way some do. Worship of the long dead Ancients is found among all of the races, though admittedly and unsurprisingly it is strongest within the Hoard Cities. The Cult largely focuses on revering the Twelve as saints, divinely ordained to live lives of utmost grace, and drawing parables from the myths and histories of their lives.