The Gods & Religion

It is said that in Makake heroes are pitied rather that adored, since the people there understand that a hero is someone who sacrifices his own needs for that of others and something bigger than themself.
- Jan'el, Stories of the Lands

This is a listing of the gods that are currently known. The Unnamed is the only god one can use for Evil and chaos domains normally, the God and Goddess can give any other. The other deities would be limited to ones implied by their names. No one worships Fate, Destiny or Wyli and most lesser deities are worshipped along with the God and Goddess, since it's never wise to offend those two. The God and Goddess are the most powerful of the deities, obviously.
The gods are gods of specific things (water, thunder) rather than emotions and the like. The gods can help you win a war, but your conscience and the like become your own concern most of the time. Aspects of gods are certain faces/masks they have. Some of them are powerful enough to be invoked in and of themselves. The lesser deities aspects are generally just invoking the name of a river the goddess protects (for Mamwien). No one is sure if these aspects are entities in and of themselves but mostly seem to be just a part of the deities consciousness, the rest being used for other things. If the God or Goddess ever gives you their full attention, be wary.
Lastly, there are no racial gods. There are some powers who may pretend to be gods, but they aren't gods.

NOTE: The BUILDER is the name given to whatever made the universe. Some say it made this world, others say (or blame) the gods for it. It does not answer prayers and is more myth than fact, perhaps nothing more than a being worshipped by the gods, or the creator of the Vaen.

THE GODS

SEYON ANDRA, God of the Sky ("The God")
Aspects: Secrets [Ninurta] Thunder [Klar], Sun [Vitra]
OYA ELAIS, Goddess of the Land ("The Goddess")
Aspects: Blood [Xia], Fertility [Morwe], Moon [Achea]

FATE, weaver of the thread
DESTINY, weaver of threads
(These two are sisters, children of the God and Goddess)
WYLI, God/Goddess of Change ("The wild one")
(Also a child of the God and Goddess, who can take any shape and form. Unreliable.)

IRKALA, Goddess of Darkness ("The mourned")
IZLA, God of Winter
MAMWIEN, Goddess of the Waters
REH, God of War

DAMIA, Goddess of the Woods
NAZRA'T, God of the Hunt
(Brother & Sister)

THE UNNAMED
(A God who survived the God War thought on the wrong side. Very little is known about him.)

& THEIR CHILDREN

SADHYAS
(a term for half gods, the children of gods and mortals.)

THE POWERS (Lesser beings, but greater than mortals)

ELEMENTALS, [all types]
NATURE SPIRITS
(dryads etc..)
THE SPINNERS, of lives
(Mortal servants or avatars or vaen who work for Fate and Destiny.)

THE VAEN (The other powers, perhaps greater than the Gods. Very little is known about them.)

DEATH
THE LADY, of Choices
THE LORD, of Words

THE SHADOW KING (This status is debated hotly, as is the existence of this being)

GERISAU, the changers (some call them Vaen, some Powers)
(A race of living fog (they call it "utility fog") who seem to like humans and kender)

Things Everyone Knows

Gods hurt more than mortals. For us, death can end our pains but the gods pain can never end because death is closed to them - forever.
- Nimih, human paladin

• The gods are real and make their homes in the OtherWorld rather than this world, though they act in both words equally.
• Sadhyas are rare, but very powerful because they are not as constrained as the gods. (Exactly how the gods are constrained, or why, isn't known.)
• IRKALA hasn't answered a prayer since the Age of Kings, and the gods refuse to say why. While gods cannot die, some legends do claim they can be destroyed, and there are some gods imprisoned somewhere....
• Fate and Destiny are more vaen than god, really, and not even they can be sure that what they plan will happen. There is always choice, even against Prophecy.
• The Lady is luck, essentially, and the Lord is prophecy. They are seldom called other than the Lord and Lady, for fear of offending them or getting their attention.

Beliefs

Religions are the evils that turn the poetry that is the gods into the prose that is badly scanned sagas.
- Lurt the Unyielding, human barbarian

There are no religions in Ios really (aside from the varied beliefs of the druids, which have more in common with the varied beliefs that get labeled Hinduism than a religion in and of itself). Some religious Orders may have what amount to sects (or cults, perhaps...) but there are no formal doctrines or teachings relating to the gods. Anyone can become a cleric (even magic users, in theory) and anyone can pray to a god. Generally, they answer clerics more but a big enough sacrifice and big enough need can get any gods attention.
The closest thing to a religion in the world is The Dawn and Dusk songs. The Dawn song was first sung when the first elves saw the rising sun and has many verses and is always sung in elven. Some believe that it gives the God reason to open His eye that is the Sun to the world. The Dusk song heralds the coming night and the rising moon and is hummed. If there are any words for it they have been lost for a long time.

The Dawn Song (Fragments)

No one knows how many verses there are to the dawn song. A few are below:

Light in Darkness
The First Lamp burns
Fire of God
(The Moon Star wanes)
Eye of God
(The waters remember)
Yours the gift to heal or burn
(Light below was light above)
Stars are falling in our eyes.

We sing to you in health
We sing to you in pain
We sing to you at death
In the skies you reign

From the blaze of passion we came
And ashes and dust we will be
Through it all the fire is true
Ensuring nothing is the same.
We call your praises with our sight
We call them in our blindness
We who can't see yet have hope
While we have it there is light.

Light in Darkness
Warmth eternal
Fires that blaze
Life that wakens
We sing! We sing!
We greet the day
The morning song.

Ritual Stuff

A man who has never lied is not a man who cannot lie.- Or'wella, human druid

The following five rituals are performed by clerics but generally anyone can perform them save for the Sundering. The people involved in the actual arrangement can't perform it themselves. Few non clerics would presume to perform a Heartfasting.

Handfasting is a ritual that binds two people together as "more than friends". It's performed at the summer solstice., the shortest night of the year. People handfasted can sleep with others but rarely have the child of someone they are not handfasted with.
Marriages are a more formal handfasting that basically say you stay with each other until the two of you break it off or one of you dies. Sexual relations with the opposite sex outside of marriage are forbidden and marriage basically ensures that yes, "bob's your father. Who told you be was your uncle? They lied!" Only a relationship that can produce children can be considered a marriage because it's the only time one is needed. Most marriages are performed under a full moon.
Heartfasting is a very old ritual and binds two people together to each other forever. If one dies, the other can't just find someone else to love or sleep with, nor can they ever handfast or marry again. Such rituals are very rare and honoured by the gods themselves who are called to witness it. Handfastings are performed on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.
Breaking is the separation of two people who are handfasted or married. This ritual is only performed during the spring equinox.
Sundering is the breaking of a heartfasting and is very, very, very rare. It is only performed during the fall equinox and few clerics will perform it.

The moon is the eye of the goddess, so people are very wary the nights when the moon is dark. During this time, no new enterprises are begun and no children named. Mothers will desperately try and ensure their children aren't born during this time. An old legend claims that someday the moon won't reappear and an age of darkness enshroud the world.