A handful of deities from the world of ANGUISHEDWIRES, The Manor of the Giant Arminius, and the Mountain of the Mad Marquis. If your character has at least one Soul Die, it might be fun to pick a God from this list. They don't have any special effects, yet...
The Doubter is the Dwarven god of architecture and engineering. He warns of impending cave-ins and flawed calculations, and reveals to the faithful the weaknesses of their enemies. Some learned scholars call him a bicameral figment of the imagination - the brain telling itself things, personifying a gut feeling as a voice from beyond. Nonetheless, he is worshiped irregularly in the surface world as Logic, representing the power of the intellect to overrule the instincts.
The God of Enlightenment grants magical secrets and knowledge to those with ears to ear and the keenness of mind to understand. It’s a mystery religion that hoards arcane knowledge and kills people who spread it freely. It rose to prominence during the waning years of the Monarchy. Selfish mages sold many of its mysteries to bored aristocrats, whose depredations brought terrible retribution on the cult’s head. Enlightenment is the enemy of Wild Magic, who gives knowledge freely, and the Strong Man, who believes living creatures should master the world with their own hands, not secrets hoarded by ancient deities.
Fat Sun, god of luck, greed and prosperity. Expects no loyalty from his followers and shows none, abandoning or destroying them at random. Still widely worshiped, everyone imagines they’ll get off the cart before it goes downhill and crashes. Worshiped underground as Open Veins, he who protects the bold and the greedy right up until the moment he doesn't. Enemy of the Doubter, who abhors Open Veins' unsafe excavation practices in the pursuit of a quick buck.
The Four Adventurers who overthrew the Monarchy are worshiped as folk saints in the Commonwealth, either as intermediaries to the more mainstream deities or as Godlets capable of divine intervention in their own right. This is awkward because nobody actually knows if the Four Adventurers are even still alive.
- Dacian of the Tower of Pain, depicted as a scarred and hairless man in various states of self-disassembly. The Cleric who brought the Tower of Pain into the mainstream with the strength of his body and his convictions.
- Fever River, depicted as a masked and androgynous man in a full body suit of blue leather, wielding a blade in each hand. Invoked for assistance against people who have violated moral laws. Appears on most of the Commonwealth’s silver coins.
- Marrow Bone, depicted as a short, wide Orc with heavy armor, a ridiculous face, a large bladed weapon, and tiny spectacles. A Saint of the Knacker, his patron god and a tribute to his humble origins.
- Rope Trick, depicted reclining as nooses crawl over her body like snakes. Invoked for aid with difficult decisions, especially when choosing between duty and one’s own moral compass (Rope Trick herself worshiped Enlightenment, an inaccessible deity)
The God King is the father of civilized Giants. He is a deified form of the pseudohistorical person who forged the petty chiefdoms of the Giants into a real kingdom. The God King taught the Giants how to rule humans, and how to raise them for food so they would never go hungry. This let them build a mighty Giant Kingdom, but eventually led to its collapse when the farmed humans grew so numerous and so essential to the Giants’ way of life that they overthrew and slaughtered their masters.
Sometimes non-giants worship the God King as a God of domination, the rule of superior beings over lesser creatures. In this aspect, the God King is distressingly similar to Oil Lamp
By Bertrand Gatignol
The Grain Goddess is what allows civilization to exist. Without the magic of the Grain Clergy the Commonwealth would have half as many people and twice as many deaths by starvation. They bless crops and create water and rival the Genius Loci (the Commonwealth’s national governing body) in size and power. Like a grange movement combined with a crime family. Strike a farmer, and they kill you. If that farmer sells at the wrong price, or violates one of the cult’s embargos, they kill him. They starve entire cities that don’t play ball.
The Goddess’ cult is a strong backer of the Commonwealth’s colonization scheme. The Salt Pan and Big Depths colonies depend on them for even the most basic necessities like water.
Holy Mountain was the state religion of the Ancient Empire, the lost civilization whose barbed tendrils once drank the blood of every continent on the planet. The basic tenet of the religion was that every living being should aspire to be buried in an ossuary beneath a Holy Mountain, special underground places designated by the Guardians. Caravans of Bone Pilgrims made circuits across the Empire, gathering skeletons from far flung communities and delivering them to their final resting place.
Controlling access to these funeral rites was key to the Ancient Empire’s unique form of hydraulic despotism. When the Monarchy sought to claim the mantle of the Empire, they made concerted effort to revive the Holy Mountain belief system - both as a form of continuity with the past civilization, and as a mechanism for social control. The faith has few adherents today.
The Liberator, God of drink, madness and freedom. His cult was instrumental in the overthrow of the Monarchy, and now wages a countercultural insurgency against the Commonwealth. In wild places, his servitors press wine from the grapes that twine his sacred trees, flaying and crucifying intruders from the so-called civilized world. In cities, his followers hold grand festivals, foment riots, and preach that a man should never work or kill because he’s told to do so, but only as it pleases him.
The Grain Goddess and the Liberator are often depicted as lovers, copulating while holding knives at one another's throats. The Goddess gives life, and the Liberator makes life worth living.
The Goddess’ cult is a strong backer of the Commonwealth’s colonization scheme. The Salt Pan and Big Depths colonies depend on them for even the most basic necessities like water.
Holy Mountain was the state religion of the Ancient Empire, the lost civilization whose barbed tendrils once drank the blood of every continent on the planet. The basic tenet of the religion was that every living being should aspire to be buried in an ossuary beneath a Holy Mountain, special underground places designated by the Guardians. Caravans of Bone Pilgrims made circuits across the Empire, gathering skeletons from far flung communities and delivering them to their final resting place.
Controlling access to these funeral rites was key to the Ancient Empire’s unique form of hydraulic despotism. When the Monarchy sought to claim the mantle of the Empire, they made concerted effort to revive the Holy Mountain belief system - both as a form of continuity with the past civilization, and as a mechanism for social control. The faith has few adherents today.
The Liberator, God of drink, madness and freedom. His cult was instrumental in the overthrow of the Monarchy, and now wages a countercultural insurgency against the Commonwealth. In wild places, his servitors press wine from the grapes that twine his sacred trees, flaying and crucifying intruders from the so-called civilized world. In cities, his followers hold grand festivals, foment riots, and preach that a man should never work or kill because he’s told to do so, but only as it pleases him.
The Grain Goddess and the Liberator are often depicted as lovers, copulating while holding knives at one another's throats. The Goddess gives life, and the Liberator makes life worth living.
Living Mountain is the supreme Dwarven God of the physical world (as opposed to the Hammerer, the lord of the afterlife). Living Mountain is in part a personification of underworld ecology, and part tutelary spirit of underground places (fortresses and caves). Scholars of comparative religion generally agree Living Mountain was the original inspiration for the Holy Mountain religion of the Ancient Empire.
Living Mountain is sometimes worshiped by surface dwellers as the God of the Depths, Lord and Lady of dungeons and treasure filled places, FatherMother of abominations that move beneath the earth. For most adventurers this is benign superstition, a quick prayer offered at the beginning of a delve. Serious devotees practice a corrupted version of the Living Mountain burial rite, killing other delvers and depositing their corpses at the deepest point of the dungeon as a sacrifice. This version of the faith is derisively referred to as Hungry Dungeon, but true believers in the bloodrite have reclaimed the term as a badge of honor.
Lord of Leaves is the ruler of wild places, the enemy of the Grain Goddess and those who till the soil. His followers believe if you can’t live by hunting and gathering, you shouldn’t live. High technology and centralized nation states allow living things to stand up to nature, which the Lord finds offensive. Popular with Elves, druids and barbarians. Sometimes considered the same god as the Liberator.
The God of Mercy offers second chances. Pledge yourself to him and his clergy will shield you from harm, no matter what you did. Though he is a foreign god, he was nonetheless popular with escaped slaves during the age of the Monarchy. His clergy would kill and die to save someone in their care from slavecatchers. His cult is still notorious for the zeal with which they hunt and kill backsliders. If you step off the path, if you worship other gods or go back to your old ways, your next chance will be in the afterlife.
In The Commonwealth the God of Mercy is worshiped by beings on the margins of society as Catch Pole, who rescues the souls of sinners before they fall into the abyss. Because of his iconography, Catch Pole is sometimes syncretized with Rope Trick, the folk-saint version of the magic user who gave the Hanged King his epithet and ended the Monarchy.
Moonshades is the trickster and the god of getting something for nothing. He is the patron god of Halflings, and his influence is why they yet survive as cowardly workshy gluttons in a world where modern centralized nation states subject anyone weaker than themselves to slavery and genocide. He is the reason they and their “little brothers” the Gnomes are the best guerilla fighters on the planet, better even than the Elves.
Oil Lamp is the god of civilization, and therefore also the god of war. The God of cities and the wonderful things people can achieve when they work together. He is also the God of slavery, genocide and domination. Oil Lamp was the patron god of the Monarchy but is still widely popular in the Commonwealth. Many credit Old Lamp with preventing social collapse after the death of the Hanged King. Generals still worship him as Iron Hand, patron of logistics and strategy.
The Strong Man loves it when humans solve problems with strength, ingenuity and willpower, and hates when they resort to magic. Traditionally a barbarian god, he has a growing following among the engineers and scientists of the Commonwealth, who probe the secrets of nature without the aid of magic.
Symphony of Flesh and the Knacker are two “alternatives” to the Grain Goddess that are probably the same deity, potentially even just aspects of the Goddess. This pair of gods is in charge of meat, from farm raised livestock and wild game to rats and cannibalism in lean times. Symphony of Flesh is the elevated version of the deity. The Knacker is the counterculture or underclass version, and at the street level is also worshiped as protector of whores, gladiators, mercenaries and other people who sell their flesh.
Tower of Pain is the ecumenical version of the Hammerer, the Dwarven God of Justice. The Hammerer gives everyone what they deserve in the afterlife, striking them however many times their evil deeds dictate before allowing them to pass. There’s a common folk belief that the Hammerer withholds blows from those who suffered adequately for their sins while alive, which in turn led to the mortification cult Tower of Pain.
Tree of Life is the other big nature religion, like Living Mountain but for Elves. Adherents are prohibited from killing other sentient beings, though allowing them to die of natural hazards or wilderness monster attacks is perfectly acceptable. Followers are known to further cheat with Charm, Sleep and other spells that win fights without dealing damage.
Wild Magic is the chaotic god of magic. Unrestrained creation and destruction, clever illusionists and tank-brained blaster casters. The power of sorcery to fix everything, then immediately fuck it up again. Worship of Wild Magic was banned under the Monarchy because of the God’s disruptive influence. It put magic in the hands of the people, and that was dangerous both because it empowered citizens against the state, and it allowed any asshole to burn his neighbors alive with fireballs. It hardly needs to be said that Wild Magic is the foe of Enlightenment.
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