Lore: Fallen Gods

 The Fallen – Early in Thindul, many gods were drawn to it from the outer reaches of Eternis, curious about Ostic's creation. Some wished to help the new mortal creatures who dwelt on it. Some were satisfied with a passing glance, and they withdrew again into the stars. Others saw Thindul and its inhabitants as playthings for cruel impulses, having never before beheld beings weaker than themselves. Many such malign gods once walked Thindul alongside its deific benefactors. Bit by bit, these entities were expelled from the world by more benevolent gods, in an age known to mythic history as the Era of Divine Strife. While some were driven back into Eternis, others were bound and thrown into the Void before time, imprisoned there eternally. The names of most are now lost to mortalkind, to be rediscovered by some ambitious cultist or esoteric scholar.

Physical Representation – The gods are fundamentally immaterial beings. They have no true physical form. There are, however, some typical depictions. On the rare occasion a god appears to mortals, with the intention to be recognized, that god takes on the physical form that their audience would anticipate.

Ataratha, the Atheist

Lore – Like Arawl, Ataratha doubted that the gods were different in kind from mortals. The possession of great power, he held, neither deserves worship, nor conveys moral authority. According to his teachings, the gods are no more than great sorcerers, as beholden to the dictums of universal law as any mortal. So, Ataratha willingly stripped himself of divine power, and came to dwell on Thindul as an immortal teacher.

Symbols – Ataratha's followers do not carry symbols.

Depiction – Usually Ataratha is depicted as a wizened figure, a dwarf among dwarves, an elf among elves, and so on.

Realm – It is said that Ataratha dwells in hermitage in a land beyond the sunset. Few who seek him return, though it is unknown whether this indicates their success, or their failure, in locating him.

Beladar, the Dragon

Lore – Beladar existed with Nerophet and the Grey Man before the stars awoke, and with them is considered one of the outer gods. When Ostic forged the world, they asked Beladar to breathe animus into it. So Beladar shaped fire to rest in the firmament, and his flame became the sun. When the Pantheon commanded the gods to withdraw from Thindul, Beladar refused, along with his consort Iandor. They wished to remain among their mortal peoples. This refusal was tolerated until Iandor acted directly to cure a plague among his people. Geledron then attempted to bind Iandor, but was repelled by Beladar in his wrath. So the Pantheon then descended on Beladar and Iandor both, felling them in divine combat of hitherto unseen fury. Today, Beladar's body comprises the Great Isle of Gwynnbered, which is mined for his bones and blood, adamant and everfire. Still, Beladar's spirit lives on, and he lends power to those who wish to live freely and defend what they care for.

Symbols – The sun, a dragon, a flame

Depiction – Beladar walked Thindul as a dragon of staggering vastness, scaled with rubies and gold.

Realm – Beladar emerged into the Void, which became Eternis when the stars awoke. He then lived upon Thindul, beside Iandor; and his body still lies entombed beneath the mountains of Gwynnbered.

Iandor, the Gentle

Lore – Iandor created halflings, who for thousands of years lived in harmony with dragons, the progeny of Iandor's consort Beladar. When Iandor still dwelt among his children, the great old one R'dnzhrotep sang a song of plague. With his thousand mouths, he cursed the slight folk with a bleeding sickness, which Iandor cured when no mortal power could. For Iandor's transgression, the Pantheon bound him deep within Thindul. Iandor's consort Beladar too was chained into the earth.

Symbols – A four-armed humanoid, a healing ankh.

Depiction – Halfling iconography represents Iandor as a four-armed figure, each hand grasping a healing ankh.

Realm – Iandor delighted in the moral world and lived amongst halflings, but now is chained in the farthest reaches of the Deepings, since flooded by Nerophet's servants.

Promethea, the Lightbringer

Lore – In the early days of the world, only the gods' angelic servants knew the secrets of magic, which allowed them to do the work of their masters in the mortal realm. Promethea saws the struggles of Thindul's mortal peoples, how they spent themselves hewing buildings from stone, or dragging sustenance from the land. In a fit of pity, Promethea descended through the firmament and gifted knowledge of magic to each race who then dwelt on Thindul – gnomes, elves, and dwarves. Yet, rather than use this new power to make more of the world's bounties, cunning mortals set on each other with fire and magecraft, extracting treasure and labor from their conquered victims. For her transgression, Promethea was bound by the Pantheon.

Symbols – A hand offering flame, a luminous lantern.

Depiction – A roughly feminine figure formed of intertwined shooting stars.

Realm – Promethea is chained to a jagged rock floating through Eternis, where winged beasts peck at her spirit, devouring her for eternity. 

Shebul, the Flesh Thief

Lore – Shebul was among the last gods to be banished before the Pantheon instituted the Divine Accord. He was Jealous of mortals. He envied their ability to take small pleasures, and their sense that their actions mattered against the scale of the cosmos. Wishing to feel these things, Shebul stole and inhabited the bodies of mortals, leading armies of howling followers across the world and indulging every savage pleasure, feasting and killing. When his chosen body was exhausted, he would abandon it for a new host in a new land. Shebul's rampages continued for centuries, because he kept so close to mortal settlements that the benevolent gods (Beladar in particular) could not descend on him without harming the inhabitants of those places. At last, Geledron was induced to join the Pantheon. He then drove Shebul into barren mountains, where he crushed the ravenous god's skull against a mountain, and cast him into the Void before time.

Symbols – A figure in a beast's jaws, a flaying knife

Depiction – Shebul walked on Thindul so long ago that no representation survives from those who worshiped him then. His few contemporary adherents depict him as an elf-like figure with the head of a beast, such as a jackal, dog, or bear. Hostile illustrators often show Shebul as a beast on all fours, wearing the flayed skin of a mortal person.

Realm – Shebul drifts through the Void, coursing backward through time, always toward more nothingness.