The Shrouded Gods

The Shrouded Gods, or the Shrouded, are deities of the most common religion of the Mornese Empire. There are seven deities, each of which are said to have been veiled, and have revealed their appearance as the Morn have spread across the galaxy until only two gods remains shrouded.

## The Gods

The Pantheon of the Shrouded goes in hierarchical order as follows:

### Viern:

Mornese in appearance, sometimes depicted with two eyes, other times four. He wore his shroud only briefly, and is considered the central deity of the Shrouded Gods. Head of the pantheon, he was responsible for showing the way to the other gods. God of Honor and Ruling.

Viern was responsible for much of the Mornese codes and common rules, that were adopted by even those who did not worship the Shrouded Gods. He also recited much of what is found in the Book of the Shroud through dreams given to his disciples, and is typically present in the dreams where other gods tell their stories. It was believed, initially, that the Mornese Empirical family was descended from Viern, but Viern has stated that all of the Morn are his children, though by creation and not biology. As for the secret of this creation, Viern and the other gods will not say, but encourage the people to search for the answer themselves.

### Drak:

Lurazian and God of war and trinity, often of three minds. The first to be discovered by Viern and also only wearing his shroud a short period of time. Peacekeeper of the pantheon and closest friend of Viern.

Drak has stated that he created the Lurazian people, with permission from Viern, once the Morn had been created. They were created to work together one day, proof of the everlasting friendship between the Gods of War and Honor.

### Kata:

Athernian, depicted with and without the suit worn by Athernians, and always floating slightly above the ground. Goddess of Storms and Healing, some of her disciples still wear their shrouds, in recognition of the suits her people are forced to wear.

### Nieren:

A Dor, and god of order and machinery, responsible for starships and advanced technology. He often confers with Therra, who is close enough to him that disciples believe the two to be either lovers or siblings.

### Therra:

Lorean in appearance, the goddess of Knowledge and Learning has been the most recent to remove her shroud and stand before those who worship. Closest to Nieren, popular lore describes the two as the children of Viern, though whether Therra married into the pantheon through Nieren or was an actual child of Viern is unclear.

### Akor:

One of the two remaining shrouded, the god(dess) of Manipulation and Deceit has yet to reveal their features. Some believe them to be another child of the Pantheon, waiting to be born, others believe them to be a Zor, unable to step forward until the Zor are regarded as citizens of the Mornese Empire. Still others believe them to be Orvican, or a race yet to be encountered or absorbed into the Empire. A small group believes them to be a Provenance, who will never be allowed to remove their veil due to their species' extinction.

### M'blak:

So little is known of M'blak that most do not believe them to even be a member of the Pantheon, rather, an event or symbol important to the Pantheon. It is theorized that they are a weapon, or even the one that tricked the Shrouded into their prisons. In most versions, M'blak does not even wear a shroud, they are depicted as an unmarked sphere, features unknown. A significant denomination believe M'blak to be a shrouded god however, many of the same theories as Akor, also apply to M'blak, though few believe them to be a Zor.

## The Saga of the Gods

It is said that the Gods were far away and distant, having abandoned the Morn for some flaw of their people, and left to live in paradise. One of the Gods returned to the Morn after many years, appeared to the people in a dream, where he claimed them as his children and removed his veil. Viern, a Morn himself, who spoke to his people and told them of the other gods, how they had not abandoned the Morn, but were trapped in false paradises. He tasked the Morn with freeing the Gods while promising to help point the way to free his brethren.

Shortly thereafter, the Morn discovered the Lurazians, and the God of War and Trinity, Drak, removed his veil.

> "*And his first hunt was for the God of War, to protect his people as they searched for the other gods' prisons." - Book of the Shroud, Chapter Eight, The Hunt for the Gods*
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Viern continued to help guide the Morn to the planets that held the other gods, as well as planets that would allow them to continue to grow and prosper. At times, when the star the Morn came to associate with Viern crossed with that of Lurazia's system, Drak's prison, times of war were ahead. When Viern and another system were aligned with Kata's prison, plague and disease would soon sweep over the Empire. The other Gods were discovered, in the same order they are listed above, with the exception of Akor and M'blak, sometimes named the "lost children" of the Shrouded.

Viern and Drak are the two commanders of the pantheon, determined through an old war fought so long ago even they cannot recall the details. When Kata was returned, she became advisor to Viern and is believed to be the life partner of Drak. Viern claimed Nieren as his own child when his shroud was removed, naming him heir to the Pantheon's control, and Drak as godfather. The mother of Nieren is unknown. Therra was always closest to Nieren, but the ambiguous wording of their relationship in the Book of the Shroud has lead to disagreement whether the two are related by blood or binding, as Viern also calls Therra his child in later chapters but did not do so when she was freed. The relations of Akor and M'blak are unknown, as Viern decreed early in the Book of the Shroud that no God's secrets were to be revealed while they were not present to hear them, or speak them themselves.

## Other Information

Disciples of the Shrouded Gods are allowed to dress as they please once they have completed their initiation, during which they choose a Shrouded God, and wear veiled robes in a time proportionate to how long the God they have chosen was hidden from worshippers. The common worshipper may choose a specific God to devote themselves to, or to pray as needed, or even simply to the panheon as a whole.

Temples or places of worship for the Shrouded Gods typically contain statues or holographic images of the Gods, some even have painted walls and mosaic floor tiles depicting either the Gods or scenes about them.

The Holy Text of the religion is the Book of the Shroud, which is considered a living document by believers and is currently twenty-eight chapters long. Each chapter can cover from a month to several decades of occurences, and are told from the point of view of one of the Shrouded Gods. These stories were relayed via dreams, often dreams of the disciples or those who become disciples, and then recorded in pieces through several nights spread out over months of even years to finish telling the tales.

A particularly devoted Disciple of Viern once threatened to "stuff an entire starship" in various places in another disciple's body when he first raised the possibility of Therra and Nieren being siblings rather than lovers. Several splits and remergings of churches later, it remains a personal interpretation, like so many other questions of the Shrouded Gods.

There are old renderings of the Shrouded Gods that depict all as Morn, due to Viern being the only known Shrouded God.

Though Akor is mentioned very little, and M'blak even less, there are more theories on those two gods than any of the others in the Pantheon. It is widely believed that Akor was very close to Viern, but that M'blak was always an outsider. While many have attempted to explain why this intuition has come to them, none have succeeded.