God

A god is a powerful being that exists entirely within the arcane plane. Gods are created when a large group of mortals, usually an entire culture, all hold a similar belief or idea in their mind. Because mortal minds impose structure on the arcane plane, if enough people all reinforce an idea, it will manifest there. Given enough time, and fueled by enough belief, the idea can begin to take on a life of its own. It develops a will, a consciousness, and even a personality. At that point, the idea becomes a god, and gains the ability to influence the mortal world in return.

Many gods exist in a symbiotic relationship with mortals. Gods can use their powers to help mortals, either by granting power to believers, or through the creation of Aspects - physical avatars that conduct their business in the mundane plane. In return, the faith that mortals place in gods sustains them and empowers them.

Not all gods have a positive relationship with mortals, however. After all, gods can only survive if mortals believe in them, but belief is not the same thing as worship. Sometimes the unconscious fears of a population can manifest into a god, which can then stoke those fears to become more powerful. In the world of Rideen, the dangerous power of ideas is very literal.

## Belief and Personality

Gods are fueled by mortal belief, but they are also defined by it. Gods have a personality that is influenced by beliefs about them. For instance, if enough people were to imagine a god of nature as callous and brutal, the god would grow to reflect that belief. If popular opinion shifted to a more nurturing and empathetic view of that god, the god's personality would change to match.

If two contrasting views of the same god are held by different cultures, the god may even become fragmented, and split into two different beings that each reflect different depictions. Multiple versions of a god can exist at the same time! One example of this is the relationship between Vrast, Goddess of Vengeance, and Farando, God of Justice. Depending on who you ask, the two are either married, bitter rivals, or actually the same god with two personalities. Because all three of these beliefs are widely held, all three are in some sense true. The arcane plane is a messy place, where reality is subjective and fact is more of a stern suggestion.

## Death of a God

Beliefs fall in and out of fashion, and so do gods. If belief in a god fades, either due to them being replaced by a new god representing similar ideas, or due to those ideas no longer being an important part of the culture they exist in, the god will lose power, their identity fading by inches until they finally disassociate altogether, and fade back into the entropic sea of the arcane plane.

Gods don't always *stay* dead, however. Maybe a few strong believers regain their faith. Maybe a group of people stumble across the texts of a long dead religion. Whatever the case may be, if faith in a god is restored, that god can come back from the dead. In some sense, gods can never really die, they just may exist or not exist at any particular moment in history.

## Major Gods in Rideen

### Farando, God of Justice and Rebirth

Farando is the most wildly worshiped god in Rideen, especially among the yewen population. As such they are extremely powerful. They represent justice, righteousness, and mankind's perpetual battle against evil. They also represent the cycle of rebirth that many yewen believe in. In more religious nations, the court of justice and the church of Farando are one and the same.

Farando is a contentious god. Their commitment (and that of their followers) to rooting out evil and injustice has earned them a reputation as zealots, particularly in the south-east regions of Rideen, where yewen feudal lords constantly war, each claiming to have Farando's favor. Nevertheless, Farando's Circle remains a mostly well-intentioned organization with peaceful followers across Rideen.

Farando is often depicted as a flaming eye within a golden circle, that sees all that transpires and judges both the good and the wicked.

### Yaris, Goddess of Mercy and Medicine

Yaris is the patron god of doctors and hospitals. She also presides over The Code of Yaris, a set of rules for warfare involving the treatment of the wounded and imprisoned to protect them from unjust harm. In times of peace, Yaris is depicted as a benevolent old woman who watches over the sick and their caretakers. In times of war, she is a fiercely protective warrior who rides into battle on a winged and bloody horse, armed with nothing but an enormous shield with which she protects the injured and enforces the Code of Yaris.

Yaris has close ties to Julan, god of Death and Hospice, and the two are often depicted as a married couple.

### Julan, God of Death and Hospice

Julan is the most significant death god in Rideen, though he is not what we might expect of a "god of death." Julan is depicted as a jovial and kind man, or sometimes as a large, friendly dog. Julan is responsible for relieving the sick and dying of their pain, and providing comfort and closure to both them and their families.

Julan's Limbo is believed to be a place between this world and whatever lies beyond death. When an individual dies with unfinished business, it is Julan's responsibility to care for them in Limbo and help them come to terms with their loss until they are ready to move on. Those who refuse Julan's peace and cling onto life may become ghosts

Julan is often depicted as Yaris' spouse.

### Vrast, God of Vengeance and Revolution

Vrast is thought of as a sort of complement to Farando. While Farando concerns themselves with upholding justice and righteousness through order, Vrast exists to provide the wronged a path to satisfaction through any means necessary. A bloodthirsty and vindictive god, Vrast is the patron deity of assassins, revolutionaries, and all those who would seek revenge against their enemies. Outright worship of Vrast is banned in many places in Rideen, but they remain a whisper on the tongue of the oppressed, a threat of violence against the comfortable, a silent sneer on the lips of the resentful.

Depictions of Vrast vary wildly. Sometimes they are a man with the head of a snake, his fangs bared. Sometimes they are a woman cloaked in a swarm of living bees, her robes dripping in blood and honey. Sometimes they are Farando's bitter rival, other times the two are married. Some even hold that Vrast and Farando are two sides to the personality of the same god.

### Kesh, God of Earth and of the Ikryn

Kesh is a popular nature god worshiped in Rideen, particularly by the ikryn. Kesh represents the duality of nature, at once both beautiful and ugly. It's believed that Kesh controls most natural disasters, especially earthquakes and volcanoes. It's also believed that Kesh created the ikryn people out of the various natural landscapes of Rideen.

Over time, Kesh also came to be associated with buzzards, due to a funeral practice of the ruby ikryn of Grellain. When a ruby dies, tradition holds that their body be taken to a pavilion in the wilderness, where it is exposed to the elements and slowly eaten by the sacred carrion birds of Kesh. Kesh represents both the harsh reality of death in an uncaring natural environment, and the beauty of our continued participation in a cycle of birth and decay.

For these reasons, Kesh is usually depicted as a vulture, rat, or other scavenging animal. Vultures hold special significance in ruby culture, and to kill one is to invoke the wrath of Kesh.

### Karra, Goddess of Animals and of the Lilithan

Karra is another popular nature god of Rideen, though notable in that she is believed to be dead. According to lilithan creation stories, Karra saw the savagery of the jalth - the ancestors of the lilithan - and felt pity for them in their desperate struggle for survival. She poured all of her life into the jalth to give them the gift of souls, granting them sapience and creating the lilithan as they exist today. However, this act required so much might that it cost her life. She lay down on the floor of the Tikarra jungle and died. Karra is still worshiped by the lilithan people to this day. Many believe that if the lilithan people are in desperate need one day, she'll return to protect them.

Karra is usually depicted as a lilithan or human woman dressed in leaves and plants.

### Skeeper, God of Chaos and Chance

Patron deity of gamblers and sailors, Skeeper is a being that detests order and structure. This places him at odds with Hanash, the goddess of Prophecy and Fate, and there are countless folk stories of Skeeper's efforts to add a bit of chaos to Hanash's well-structured plans. Their relationship is usually characterized as a respectful rivalry, as both recognize the necessity of each other's existences.

Although he is referred to as the God of Chaos, Skeeper's true domain lies in the intersection between perfect order and perfect chaos. As he views it, a system at minimum entropy and a system at maximum entropy are equally dull. He usually does his best to keep the world from ever being too boring, but has also worked with Hanash to protect it from existential threats, such as the workings of Kos, the God of Winter and Entropy.

Skeeper is usually symbolized by a fox or crow.

### Hanash, Goddess of Prophecy and Fate

Patron deity of both oracles and tailors, "The Lady Fateweaver" watches the Fabric, a prophetic structure that underlies all of reality. In addition to providing visions of the future, past, and present to those who seek her wisdom, Hanash also protects the world from more metaphysical threats - for instance, the workings of Akazar Greskel, "The Patchwork King," whose experimentation with time travel and with altering the Fabric nearly destroyed Rideen.

Depicted as owl, or sometimes as an elderly seamstress, Hanash is often worshiped by those who fear that they have no future, no plan for their lives. The Oracular Order of Hanash offers structure and meaning to the lost.

### Kos, God of Winter and Entropy

A bitter and dispassionate entity, Kos is another significant god of death in Rideen's pantheon, although they aren't so much worshiped as they are feared. While Julan represents the comfort and closure of a peaceful death, Kos represents the pure existential horror of an eternity of oblivion. Depicted as a flat crystal of ice, Kos grows stronger in the winter, as the color and warmth is leeched from the world. Their Aspects prowl the frozen northern wastes of Titanica, where almost no life can survive the blasting and inhospitable cold.

Hanash, Skeeper, and Kos have a complex relationship of mutual partnerships and rivalries, and there have been multiple occasions in the past where Hanash and Skeeper have united to prevent Kos from reducing parts of the world to a dead and entropic void.

### The Naked God

Deep in the Hana Barr mountains, the Cult of the Naked quietly worships their patron deity, gathering strength and believers. There's just one catch: the Cult of the Naked is composed of koromein. With no connection to the arcane plane, koromein cannot impose ideas upon it, and so their beliefs have no effect on gods whatsoever. Nevertheless, the Cult of the Naked believes firmly that the Naked God will one day manifest themselves to drive out the yewen who persecute them, and reclaim the Hana Barr mountains for the koromein people. There is currently no evidence that the Naked God is anything other than a myth, and without any non-koromein believers to power them, they will likely stay that way.

### The Apex, God of the Hunt

Warning: This section contains spoilers for one or more stories in the Rideen setting

A being of pure hunger created from the collective unconscious of all life in the vyrcane plane, the Apex was the being responsible for the Sundering, the apocalyptic event that nearly destroyed all of Rideen and the world. While they were believed to be killed at the conclusion of the Sundering event, the lasting impression they left on all the people of Rideen has given them a second life of sorts, born from the memory of the horrors of the Sundering, just as they were first born from the fears of the vyrcane beasts. This reincarnated Apex lurks and gathers strength, but it lacks the intelligence or self-awareness of other gods. It is little more than an enormous animal that the other gods work to keep in check.