Theology

Each land of Avo has their own type of theology/mythology.

A Note On Creation Myths

Every civilization across the Material Plane has some kind of concept of how the multiverse was created. Those creation myths are all individually true. They all happened, because the creation of the multiverse defies explanation. It belongs in a nebulous realm of mystery and thus, wherever you are, if you pursue the creation myth stories to their sources, you will find that creation occurred as it is stated in those myths. Faerun’s creation myth is true in Faerun, for example.

Typically, creation myths within a particular world will have a dominant, defining creation myth, which can be considered the “true” myth, by which I mean that other creation myths are deemed false. However, so long as the other myths aren’t proven to be false, they still exist and no one really bats an eye at them. Avo is currently in a bit of turmoil over a dominant creation myth, as the former myth— the False Gods of Valwyr— has been overturned. The prevailing myth is the Lotus concept in Dorian, though Leophynsia’s Hendecagoi is also considered the actual creation of the world. The Padoran creation is also gaining popularity. Strangely enough, the titanic creation myth, told to the people of Phynsia by an actual titan Covoran, is not as popular as you’d think.

Deneshae

The Walking Goddesses

[This is Medresh’s interpretation.] Three goddesses: Qualyn, Imaeatin, and Sqeatu. The gnomes, dwarves, and humans of Deneshae believe their goddesses exist in their world currently. Qualyn lives in Gophur Ama (or is Gophur Ama, depending on who you speak to). Sqeatu is the sun, or moves the sun, and lives in a temple “beyond the horizon,” where she sleeps at night before walking around the horizon for the new day. Medresh doesn’t know anything about Imaeatin other than she is the moon. Imaeatin is also known as the goddess who created the ancient elves, and may actually be Lolth.

Celeskarn the Mad

The humans of Deneshae were, long ago, once separated by the other races via <the enormous lake>. Some humans in southern Deneshae thus believe in one god, Celeskarn, who they say plunged to Avo, his body splitting into several pieces that are now sacred landmarks. There may be some connection with Celeskarn and Covoran of the Leophynsian theology, namely that Covoran may have traversed the land of Yonavi before it was sundered during the dragonborn wars.

Bahamut

Dragonborn believe in a triad of dragons who breathed them into the world. The dragonborn of northern Deneshae mainly worship Bahamut, a benevolent platinum dragon.

Dorian

The Lotus

The lotus pantheon is the primary theology/cosmology in Dorian and parts of Yonavi. It is described in more detail in another document I wrote!

Tal’s Tribe

Tal’s tribe, and most tribes in the Frigid North, worship their northern deities. That is written by Robbie somewhere on Obsidian Portal.

Valwyr

Since before recorded time, the gods of Valwyr were a pantheon that we players would know as the Forgotten Realms pantheon of D&D. But about 100 years ago, the Ruenat, a group of Epic adventurers, discovered that ancient lich wizard bad dudes were projecting false copies of the Faerun pantheon into Valwyr, perhaps by Vecna himself to gain a foothold of worship power there. The Ruenat (along with their peasant friends) destroyed the liches and their nefarious machine, ending their worship in Valwyr.

The False Gods

This is essentially the Faerun pantheon with a few exceptions (like, for instance, Bahamut and Tiamat are not false and are worshiped by the dragonborn). The False Gods never existed in Avo, nor were the actual gods of Faerun aware that they existed in Avo, with the exception of Vecna, who may have orchestrated the entire thing.

The Celestial Kingdom

About 70 years after the False Gods were evicted from Valwyr, a spokesperson from the Celestial Kingdom arrived to espouse the word of their gods. The CK is kind of strange: they resemble a cult, but the cult leaders are gods (think Vivec), and they also operate like a temp agency. They are having difficulty finding religious purchase in Valwyr, as everyone there has sort of turned toward a secular, technological means. Their “headquarters” are on the floating island of Bekoon, which floats above the Letoran Plains.

Yonavi

Unitarian Spiritualism

People in the Islands who don’t worship the Old Gods of Iro tend to revere individual spirits over a pantheon of gods. Some worship or have cobbled together pantheons based on gods from the surrounding lands. Many of these “gods” are rulers or protectors of individual islands.Thus, there can be hundreds if not thousands of godlike “spirits” within the Yonavi, and each island can have their own pantheon of sorts. A common theme, however, is that each island has its own patron spirit, usually some type of nature spirit, that looks over the island.

Sardior

Most of the dragonborn of Yonavi worship Sardior, the Gemstone Dragon. Sardior is the dragonification of neutrality, and thus rarely operates on a mortal scale unless the balance of the world has shifted too far one way or another. He is known for interfering with both Tiamat and Bahamut’s plans for world domination. All of the known gemstone dragonborn live in Yonavi as well, and are very secluded, usually only coming out to help bring balance when balance is greatly out of order.

Leophynsia

The Hendecagoi

The elves of Leophynsia worship the eleven titans who remained after Avo was created. Three of those titans— Covoran, Gamaver, and Atren— are now deceased.

Tiamat

The chromatic dragonborn of Khaosar worship the multi-headed dragon Tiamat. While not all Khaosar are evil, Tiamat is generally considered an evil, or malicious, deity. It is also believed that the Obsidian Sea was created in part by Tiamat breathing endless fire onto the sand.

Iro

Padora

Many in Iro worship the singular deity Padora, and believe that the Material Plane exists within Padora’s lungs.

Skallanism

Skallanism is the worship of the Old Gods, which are gods specific only to the elves of Iro, but may be distant relatives, theologically, to some of the Lotus deities.

Modur

Kelter

The Moduran elves have lived alone for so long that they believe the gods left them ages ago. They thus have a more philosophical style of theology. Rather than worshiping deities, they believe in the “kelter,” or the senses of beings. They are essentially Aristotelian and only believe things which they can interact with.