Religions

THE CHANTRY

A century ago, the Chantry was highly influential in Zwll's politics. They are still important in the hearts and minds of many, being the city's most prominent religion. The Chantry maintains a close relationship with Hell, where their chief deity resides. Chantrians venerate the following gods:


 * Hakos / Hakosma, the God Below. Lord under the earth. King of the gods. All the dead go to Hell, His domain. The great who have proven themselves in life go to a paradise of natural riches. The majority of the dead toil without end to craft gems, gold, and other riches of the earth. Many join the Hellish armies to fight the Demons that rule the sky. Prayers to Hakos are never simple praise. They are sent to beg for riches, a good harvest, or the sparing of loved ones.
 * Bia, the God in the Middle. The god of war and struggle undergoes a constant cycle of reincarnation. They live the life of a random mortal, die, and are reborn as another. When they have lived the life of every mortal that is, was, and will be, their wisdom will be unparallelled.
 * Ophelis, the God Above. Mother of Hakos and Bia. Goddess of the sky and Chaos. Goddess of revolutions and change. Considered the treacherous Enemy for eating Bia's physical body. She tried to eat Hakos too, but he escaped.
 * Extolumë. The divine personification of love. The first of the gods, and father-mother of The Hundred-Handed one. Both love and human / gravitational attraction. Awoke in an empty universe. Married Hakos when he emerged, but he is noted for his infidelity.
 * The Hundred-Handed One. Creator of the earth, the sky, and plants. People used to be able to see him in the sky in the form of the sun.
 * The Daimónës. Elemental gods, founders of the city-state if Zwll. The djannin and the djennasi venerate them as their divine ancestors, and refer to them as the Sama Dayira. Through them, worship of these beings was eventually adopted into chantry doctrine.
 * Minor gods. A whole bunch of lesser deities, such as the dragon gods Ildarxos and Astrapiarxes.

THE LEHEMITES

Worship of the old gods still lives here and there. The Yuan-Ti venerate the serpent-goddess Tiamat as their creatrix, and their religion exists in some other communities too. The Chantry came to be as a sect that split off from Lehemitism, claiming that the old gods had died. Recently, many young Chantrians became disillusioned with the institution's stifling doctrine, and converted to a Neo-Lehemite faith. Lehemites worship the following gods:


 * Tiamat. The serpent-goddess. The ruler of the seas. Mother of Chaos. She created the chromatic dragons from the horrors of the seas to avenge her injured husband. The Yuan-Ti are her chosen people, and still receive visions from her. The Chantry states that she died in a war against her grandchildren, but the Lehemites hold that she lives on in an infernal prison.
 * Abzu. The ruler of the land, and speaker of Law. Husband of Tiamat. Created the metallic dragons to wage war upon his grandchildren, who he feared would overthrow him. Such it is, that old age often fears new generations. Naturally, he fulfilled the prophecy of his own demise by attacking his grandchildren, and he now lives on as the ghost of a god.
 * Lahmu. Also known as Lehem, the god for which the faith is named. It is said that Lahmu travelled beside the faithful when they fled into the 'Trails, and taught them the secret of growing crops underground.
 * Lahamu. Sibling and spouse of Lahmu. Ruler of stars and domesticated animals.
 * Anshar. Father of the skies. Son of Lahmu and Lahamu. Smote down Abzu when he attacked him and his sibling-spouse Kishar. Later also defeated Tiamat when she came to avenge her husband. Some myths attest that he became the god of Chaos after he tore Tiamat's divinity from her heart.
 * Kishar. Queen of the earth. When Abzu's body was slain and fell to the earth, she took his divinity and inherited the throne of Law. Where the Chantry sees a clear opposition between Law and Chaos, the marriage of Anshar and Kishar suggests that the two should be in balance.
 * Anu. Son of Anshar and Kishar.