Religion

The world of Varel knows many religions.

Although each folk has their own deities, most concepts directly translate to one another.

Amongst many folks there are also cults and minor religions, some folks have more of these, and tolerate them more than others.

Most religions have their own theory of creation. Because each religion is deemed "correct", all of these theories are true at the same time. This makes for canonical contradictions which do make as much sense to the reader as the people in the world of Varel.

Deities do not believe in other deities. Power in people who do not worship the religion those deities are part of are seen to receive this power from their respective "devil" for say.

In many religions, deities have tiers. There are gods, demigods and heroes in the greek religion for example. These tiers will be represented in the following list by Gods, Major deities Minor deities and Patrons, noted as G, Maj, Min and Pat respectively. In this list, patrons have relatively little power but if they were human, they would be considered legendary.

## Deities by folk

### Kazena Religion

Arana - Goddess of Death (G)

Arana is the goddess of death in the kazena religion. Her physical appearance is that of a huge black bird which partly manifests in black smoke. She has glowing red eyes and three flowing long tails reminiscent of a lacetrice. Because of the nature of their religion, the goddess of death is not feared but actually revered and admired. Arana is not associated with the mournful death of kazena, but with murder of unglorious people and ascension of kazena who have lived in honour.

Vemaran - God of the emptiness (G)

Vemaran is the god of emptiness in the kazena religion. His most commonly manifested form is a big old black masculine hand originating from a dark cloud. In contrast to Arana, goddess of death, this is the deity that most closely represents the concept of "death" in other religions. When a kazena dies unhonorably, in other words have not been living in accordance to the rules of kazena religion. These rules are relatively broad so living like this is not done accidentally.

Vara - Goddess of the Youth (Maj)

Vara is the god of the youth in the kazenan religon. Her physical appearance is that of a turquoise hooded kazenan phantom. She protects the kazenan youth and stands for their prosperity. She has her own band of illusionary lolitas roaming the lands, tricking prospective pedophiles and violently ending their lives upon their unmasking.

Vex - God of inner balance (G)

Vex is the god of inner balance, most comparable to the god of spirit in other religions. His physical form is that of a big yellow glowing deer, symbolizing gentility, calmness and balance. He is associated with the spirit and soul, and balance of it. Vex is a god of duality though; where most gods can be used for either good or evil, Vex is both the god of the scales of the soul, and upsetting these scales. Allegiants gain control over both their and other souls. Healing them, hurting them, it's all in Vex' realm of posibilities.

Ilija - Goddess of fire (Maj)

Ilija is the goddess of fire, her physical form is that of a fox's head completely consisting of flames and voids. She has strong ties to the igneous magnavipers that run through the ground of Delvaruud and she is strongly associated with fire magic, mostly evocation.

Horenor - God of Firecraft (Min)

Horenor is the god of firecraft, or making things with fire, in the kazenan religion. His physical appearance is that of a burly kazena man's upper body attached to the body of a goat. The man has a great beard and long curled horns. He is often depicted with his signature smithing hammer. He stands for any craft that involves fire, like glass blowing and smithing. Allegiance to him greatly aids the user in these crafts and increases their physical heat tolerance to puzzling levels.

Ravinaja - Arch Succubus (Min)

Ravinaja is the Arch Succubus. Her physical form is that of a voluptuous succubus woman with four eyes, two split tongues, three tails, four arms and four legs. Her body is engulfed in a red plasma and her eyes shine a bright yellow light. She is seen as the mother of all succubi and the source of their sexual magical abilities. Some half-succubi are also granted power from her, but this is quite rare.

Temara - God of Alchemy (Min)

Temara is the god of Alchemy. Their physical form is that of an androgynic human-snake hybrid with metallic scales, emanating sparkling grey smoke. Though a human-snake hybrid, they look distinctly different from a Naga. They are associated with alchemy and allegiance to them grants great herbal identifying and harvesting abilities, and a very natural understanding about many alchemical effects. Most who are allegiant to Temara are inventors of novel potions.

Matronen - God of mischief (Min)

Matronen is the god of mischief. His physical form is that of a classical imp, the "devil on your shoulder" though with caricaturesque facial features. He can hide his mischievious face and look quite normal as to make him less suspicious while being mischievious. He is obviously associated with mischief and grants allegiants access to a wide array of jinxes and hexes. He also grants his allegiants help in hiding themselves, allowing them to stealth more easily. Though virtuous kazena are only supposed to be allegiant to five gods at the same time, allegiance to Matronen often does not disintegrate a Kazena's other allegiances, since he is the god of mischief and "not following the rules". The gods tolerate his mischief, and thus the mischief of his allegiant kazenae by being allegiant to 6 gods at once.

### Elven religion

Chloe - Patron of Gender (P)

Chloe is the Patron of Gender in the Elven religion. Their physical form is of a good looking young elf who is simply dressed. They have no wings but can float for a while. Chloe's gender depends on the gender the follower is inside. For normal elves they see Chloe as their own gender, but elves who struggle with their sex see Chloe as the gender they wish to be. For normal elves, she does not grant much power. To elves who find themselves in battle with their gender, however, she grants the power to look more androgynous. With enough sacrifice and praise, she may even change the follower's gender completely.

Vi - Patron of Unlikely Sex (P)

Vi is the Patron of Unlikely Sex in the Elven religion. Her physical form is of a fair elven woman with flowy dark blonde hair who wears an ornate white tunic. She has minor energy wings that can be used for flight. Because of the relative prudishness of the elven folk, not many people know of her. People pray to her if they dearly want to have sex with someone while this happening is very unlikely. Because of the specificity of this deity, she is best known amongst other folks than the elven. Because of the desperacy of the people who would be likely to pray to her, they often do so despite the potential violation of their own religion.

### Adzaian religion

In adzaian religion, the world is ruled by 7 gods that represent the basic elements from which the world consists according to them. They all live together in harmony and decide together how the world is to be upheld, this is most likely why the adzaians have formed a democracy instead of a religion or royal -archy. These gods are genderless and do not have a physical form beyond their orb,

Ar - God of Earth (G)

Ar is the god of Earth in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by a brown orb of energy.

Va - God of Fire (G)

Va is the god of Fire in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by a red orb of energy.

Ru - God of spirit (G)

Ru is the god of spirit in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by an orange orb of energy.

Fe - God of Wind (G)

Fe is the god of wind in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by a yellow orb of energy.

Ga - God of water (G)

Ga is the god of water in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by a blue orb of energy.

Do - God of Darkness (G)

Do is the god of darkness in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by a purple orb of energy.

Ti - God of Nature (G)

Ti is the god of nature in the adzaian religion and is one of seven major spirits the govern their religion. They are represented by a green orb of energy.

## Customs by Religion

### Kazenan Religion

Kazenas have a typical polytheistic religion, where Kana, the Archdemon, rules all gods below her. The kazenan religion knows many major and minor gods, as well as patrons. Most things that kazena find important are represented by a deity, the most important ones being the deities of highest order.

Kazenan religion has heavy ties to magic numbers. The most sacred of numbers is five. Worshipping circles are often pentagrams and each kazena may be allegiant to only five deities at once. One exception is allegiance to Matronen, god of Mischief. Since deviancy is closely associated to him, and being allegiant to more than five deities is not according to the Kazenan religion, allegiance to Matronen and only him is accepted as a sixth allegiance.

Kazena form deep bonds with the deities they worship. It is possible to switch allegiance at any time, but allegiance to a god is only worth the time they spend with them. A kazena who, for example, worshipped Arana since childhood, will have a great control over dark powers, while a person who only recently started worship would receive little, if any power at all.