The past is a snare to trap the unwary, traditions are nooses holding us down. Free yourselves of what was, of the ancestors whose images you are forces to live up to! Fre yourself of the past and break the shackles of what was, to form a true future.
- Unkown Warrior-Priest of Akran, circa The Age of Broken Pasts
To separate religion from history on Kevren is impossible. Each age of the world has its god, whose power and followers change the world as they see fit, in the name of their Deity. Once every age has passed, the world Cycles and is reborn again, with the Gods being reborn able to seek their Godhood again. Or fail.
| Deity | Dominion | Their Age |
| The God(dess) | All | The beginning |
| Atien | Goddess of being | The age of birth |
| B’lok | God of forms | The age of first life |
| Boldeim | Goddess of weaving | The age of purposes given |
| Caldor | God of peace | The time of peace |
| Cliel | Goddess of war | The first age of conflict |
| Dah’cmet | God of old magic | The age of Power |
| Dolisn | Goddess of control | The age of taming |
| Eagal | God of trade | The age of commerce |
| Evisn | Goddess of travel | The age of expansion |
| Famine | God of waste | The time of the first nations |
| Fleres | Goddess of water | The age of cleansing |
| Gendes | God of dreams | The age of discovery |
| Gledien | Goddess of wisdom | The age of contemplation |
| H’del | God of magic | The age of art |
| Haciem | Goddess of fire | The age of knowledge |
| I’ii | God of knowledge | The age of broken wonders |
| Ii’i | Goddess of learning | The age of myth and story |
| Jalden | God of doors | he age of opening |
| Jolien’sha | Goddess of darkness | The ages of loss |
| Komor | God of healing | The age of hope |
| Kulesya | Goddess of healing | The age of rebuilding |
| L’tolsh | God of water | The age of lost sorrows |
| Liekta | Goddess of fire | The age of new war |
| Molas | God of protection | The age of empire |
| Muan | Goddess of pain | The age of oppression |
| Niand | God of air | The age of separation |
| Nua | Goddess of valour | The age of deeds |
| O’mar | God of rock | The age of weapons |
| Ooaei | Goddess of music | The age of calm |
| Patri | God of madness | The age of false calm |
| Peuri | Goddess of air | The age of ice |
| Qanta | God of history | The age of new hopes |
| Quezil | Goddess of sleep | The long age |
| Ranbir | God of oaths | The age of unity |
| Romi | Goddess of night | The age of defeating evil |
| Sasen | God of the future | The age of watching |
| Seri | Goddess of wood | The age of sundered shadows |
| Temchad | God of power | The age of white |
| Tsiri | Goddess of metal | The age of payment |
| Umar | God of winter | The age of deaths |
| Uni | Goddess of love | The age of alliances |
| Vakti | God of love | The age of false truth |
| Veisa | Goddess of summer | The age of burning fires |
| Xeran | God of memory | The age of broken pasts |
| Xidi | Goddess of despair | The age of lost wisdom |
| Yakta | God of religion | The rising of the True Faiths |
| Yel | Goddess of sin | The age of false witness |
| Zantir | God of debts | The age of continued war |
| Zeril | Goddess of fear | The age of the coming again |
| Ashakan | The eternal | The nameless age |
| The God(dess) | All | The ending |
In the age of Gledien, goddess of wisdom, orative history of the world began. Prior to this, few stories save old myths tell us about previous ages. With the age of Qanta, god of history, written histories of the world began. However, even with that, the references (beginning with Temchad and the age of power) to “white” still remain unknown in our present age. Historically, an age us referred to as both the age of its name and God, often used interchangeably. Most people know the deities back as far as Xeran and the prominent ones like Cliel.
The history of the world extends as far back as the age of broken pasts, when the god Xeran rose to power and the nation of warrior-priests called Akron destroyed all written records of the past for reasons that are unknown in our present days. The nation of Akran conquered almost all the known world ion its own way, causing book burning and destroying nations and peoples in their effort to eradicate the past. Some, mostly mages, speculate they sought to erase some forbidden knowledge that the previous ages tried to bring to light. Whatever their reasons, history prior to that event three thousand years past is almost entirely gone. The record of the ages, kept by the Learned and a few who serve The God, are all the knowledge that comes from those ages. The temples remaining to the god entrusted with those past ages (the ones said gods were able to save from destruction) are all the architecture that survived. Most written records still found are in languages none of the living know and few beings from those ages still live on Kevren.
| The Age of Broken Pasts begins | |
| • | The nation of Akran comes to power, dedicated to eradicating the past. |
| • | Having conquered most of the world, and done their deed, the nation disbands. |
| • | Various nation-states rise to power from the ensuing chaos and begin warring with each other, as usual. |
| • | People begin to realise how much the Akran took away from them. |
| The Age of Lost Wisdom begins | |
| • | A concerted effort is made to try and recover lost knowledge. Very little is found. |
| • | In place of knowledge, religions begin to rise as pantheons of specific deities. |
| • | The religions begin to clash and have wars as the pantheons spread. |
| The Rising of the True Faiths begins | |
| • | Many religions begin to gain power, holding their deity to be one of the older gods. |
| • | The wars of faith begin, lasting roughly 300 years of sporadic fighting. |
| • | The followers of Cliel are killed and much of the war ceases. |
| The Age of False Witness comes | |
| • | Cliel is named slain and mortals vie for her Godhood. |
| • | Nine mortals claim to be the replacement for Cliel. One even claims to be her reborn. |
| • | The god of peace (Caldor) names Cliel’s successor, who is Cliel reborn. |
| • | A mortal claiming to be the real Cliel kills the high priests of Caldor. |
| The Age of Continued War starts | |
| • | The “new” Cliel feeds off the death of those sworn to peace and wars break out. |
| • | Glass Castle vanishes, taking with it much knowledge of the times before Akran. |
| • | People fear Cliel’s priests will end the world in war and the priests of Zantir act. |
| • | The “first” or “real” or whatever Cliel pays a debt to Zantir. |
| • | The false Cliel(s) are imprisoned in a box of change. |
| • | Cliel calls on Jalden and Dah’cmet’s magic is called forth again. |
| • | The Empire is founded by Dah’cmet’s strength. |
| • | The god of Power raises his strength against Dah’cmet but is beaten back |
| • | The Empire defeats the combined armies of the Nations of Molas. |
| • | Due to the amount of deaths, Death closes His hall; The Rising of the Dead begins. |
| • | The Order that serves the God intervenes, destroying the armies of the dead. |
| • | The Empire builds it’s famous wall, half in this world, the other half in magic. |
| • | The great caves beneath the Empire are hollowed out for food as the headlands refuse to supply the Empire. |
| • | The folk of the Old Swamp refuse to trade with the Empire. |
| • | The army of the Empire fails to take the Swamp. It is their first military failure. |
| • | Various small rebellions within the Empire are crushed mercilessly. |
| • | Paying their debt to Dah’cmet, the Empire kills all mages within their borders. |
| • | Komor and Kulesya demand an end to the wars. Cliel, owing them an old debt, agrees. |
| The Age of the Coming Again, the age of Fear begins (This is the modern age) | |
| • | Tales of the white begin in remote places. Many mages die. |
| • | The plague of Ashakan decimates the world, killing over 1/3 of the population. |
| • | The mines of Padrei runs dry; the elven kingdom collapses as the dwarves told them they would. |
| • | Wanderers are seen on many roads, causing great fear and consternation. |
| • | The Orc raiders invade on their vessels but fail to take the city of Keep. |
| • | The Shadow Demons resume trade with the world. |
| • | The tetric grove in the Western Wood is broken by old magic. |
| • | Ten of the Hundred necromancers dismantle the hidden tetric woods in fear. |
| • | The Orcs invade at the north and burn much of the headlands before a dwarven army repulses them. The Bleak Watch is built. |
| • | Patri’s plague strikes the far south, the fleets dedicated to Fleres are broken. |
| • | The encircling ocean becomes impassable as L’tolsh watches Fleres cry. |
| • | A few believe that Patri succeeded in driving another god insane. They are silenced. |
| • | Niand’s strength is felt in the Empire. Rumours of division in that nation abound. |
| • | The alchemist Felcen opens a door that should have remained closed. |
| • | The Previous Kevren campaign is played (194 AZ). |
| • | Gledian’s oracles speak of great power coming for Jolien’sha. |
It is currently the 245th year in the Age of Zeril.
More atrocities are committed in the name of religion than for any other reason.
- Unknown
With 52 major gods, religion is a very touchy issue for most people. While no “One True God” religions have cropped up, the question of pantheons and greater gods causes quite enough religious instability as it is. Picture Europe in the dark ages to gain some idea of peoples lives and the hold religion can have on them. Add the fact that the gods are, to term it politely, interfering busy bodies in the events of the world and you’ve got places where divine intervention is an established and accepted fact. The will of the gods is very direct in most peoples lives, and most gods aren’t really all that subtle.
Greater Gods:
As flies to wanton boys, we are to gods;
They kill us for their sport.
- Shakespeare, "King Lear"
This is the issue at the heart of most religious debates. It is an accepted fact that the world itself, while beginningless, goes through cycles of rebirth and cleansing and is, in a sense, reincarnated over time. The God is responsible for this, and commands both the beginning and ending of one of these cycles. it is said that some Gods from previous cycles can survive and become the gods for the next one. This is what is called being a Greater God. All it really amounts to is a (supposed) wisdom due to age and bragging rights by the standards of gods. Whether it confers additional power besides being able to make avatars survive death is unknown, but it automatically establishes a god very high in any pantheon.
An important factor in being a god is dying. Gods can die (in their case, it is being destroyed as oppossed to true death where you get reborn) or be supplanted for a time. This means that the god in question is no longer eligible for status as a Greater God or, if they had it, have lost it. Killing the priests of a god and destroying many temples of the god is a very good start on the path to “killing” a god. However, if the god is not destroyed in fact, it returns to life in mortal form, and can try and regain it’s Godhood. Some speculate that all gods who survive the ending of a true cycle (all 52 ages) are reborn in mortal form for the next one and have to struggle to achieve their Godhood in the next one and become Greater Gods if they succeed. True or not, gods that survive their “death” by taking on a mortal form seem very adept at regaining their lost status. The most recent example of this is the goddess of war, Cliel. (It’s in the history section.)
It is generally assumed that Atien, B’lock, and Boldeim are all Greater Gods. Dah’cmet is certainly one as are Niand and Romi. What status the being knpwn as Ashakan has in this isn’t known.
Major Gods: These are the 52 gods who each have their own Age on Kevren. The gods age is often linked to their own bailiwick (the god of healing being linked to ages of calm etc.). While both a god and goddess may hold the same power, they are each different facets of it. The gods are also closely linked to the goddess in the same alphabetical listing of them (A and A, C and C etc.). While their power waxes and wanes due to their age an age conflicting their power they should never be underestimated. While the older gods rarely act in the world anymore, few are foolish enough to ignore them.
Minor Gods: These are the other gods, the god of icy chills, the god of runny noses etc. that are almost all very weak and products of belief alone. Some of the minor gods, such as the god of alcohol (known as Proof), are very powerful but most are minor local gods of no importance. Minor gods are very limited in terms of powers and can not trespass on the bailiwick of another god. In other words, if you anger the god of alcohol (say by establishing AA) ass long as you stay away from taverns, don’t drink often and keep clean of obviously drunk people you have almost no worry. If the god does call in a favour with other gods (major or minor) then you’ve got a problem.
There are no priests and few temples for minor gods. While it is easy to drain a minor god of power, no one has ever been able to kill one, which gives them some advantage over major gods.
The God:
. . . The gods who haunt
The lucid interspace of world and world,
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans,
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar
Their sacred everlasting calm . . .
- Tennyson
For the record, The God dess is time. The ager that kills, the end and beginning of all things. A group known as the Order apparently serves that god, but no priests or temples to The God dess have ever been constructed, mostly because this being is considered above prayer. While those of the Order have manipulated time on occasion and some mages dare such acts, there is no record of The God dess ever acting in the world.
Avatars: To be an avatar of a god is to embody a portion of the gods power in the world. Many gods are reluctant to make mortals their avatars, solely because if the mortal dies or is destroyed, that portion of the deities power is gone as well. Aside from this, avatars tend to be very powerful beings, but are also susceptible to the age that they exist in. In other words, Avatars in the age of Zeril will find their powers work better when they cause fear, for example. Most of the greater gods rarely ever have avatars, but they have a special advantage: having survived a Cycle, they can permit their avatars to survive simple deaths and heal from killing wounds.
In game terms, a character can become an avatar of a god at any level, and begins picking up levels in Avatar at that point. They cannot pick up levels in any other class until the god is done with them or permits it. For example, Cliel would permit her avatars to take levels in fighter as well as avatar because it makes sense for her. Caldor, on the other hand, would not. The exact benefits of being an avatar should be worked out with the DM by the player.
Established Pantheons
These are some of the possible pantheons the gods are ordered into. The standing of the gods within the pantheons, as well as different sects holding different gods belonging to these basic pantheons, leads to much confusion and discord.
| Civilisation | Creation |
| Dolisn (Goddess of control) | Atien (Goddess of being) |
| Eagal (God of trade) | B’lok (God of forms) |
| Evisn (Goddess of travel) | Gledien (Goddess of wisdom) |
| I’ii (God of knowledge) | Jolien’sha (Goddess of darkness) |
| Ii’i (Goddess of learning) | Kulesya (Goddess of healing) |
| Molas (God of protection) | Patri (God of madness) |
| Qanta (God of history) | Tsiri (Goddess of metal) |
| Xeran (God of memory) | Zeril (Goddess of fear) |
| Destruction | Evil |
| Cliel (Goddess of war) | Cliel (Goddess of war) |
| Famine (God of waste) | I’ii (God of knowledge) |
| Jolien’sha (Goddess of darkness) | Jolien’sha (Goddess of darkness) |
| Patri (God of madness) | Muan (Goddess of pain) |
| Umar (God of winter) | Vakti (God of love) |
| Xidi (Goddess of despair) | Yakta (God of religion) |
| Ashakan (The eternal) [rarely] | Yel (Goddess of sin) |
| Good | Home |
| Caldor (God of peace) | Boldeim (Goddess of weaving) |
| Ii’i (Goddess of learning) | Jalden (God of doors) |
| Komor (God of healing) | Komor (God of healing) |
| Molas (God of protection) | Kulesya (Goddess of healing) |
| Nua (Goddess of valour) | Ooaei (Goddess of music) |
| Ranbir (God of oaths) | Quezil (Goddess of sleep) |
| Yakta (God of religion) | Uni (Goddess of love) |
| Zantir (God of debts) | Vakti (God of love) |
| Nature | The Unknown |
| Famine (God of waste) | Dah’cmet (God of old magic) |
| Fleres (Goddess of water) | Gendes (God of dreams) |
| Haciem (Goddess of fire) | H’del (God of magic) |
| L’tolsh (God of water) | Jalden (God of doors) |
| Liekta (Goddess of fire) | Jolien’sha (Goddess of darkness) |
| Niand (God of air) | Sasen (God of the future) |
| O’mar (God of rock) | Temchad (God of power) |
| Peuri (Goddess of air) | Xeran (God of memory) |
| Romi (Goddess of night) | Zeril (Goddess of fear) |
| Seri (Goddess of wood) | |
| Umar (God of winter) | Ashakan (The eternal) |
| Veisa (Goddess of summer) | (Though his standing is questioned) |
Of all the gods, Ashakan (who is said to be other than a god by some) is most rarely worshipped. No temples or priests are known to exist to this being, though legends claim he is the most powerful of the gods in many ways and as eternal as death, fate and prophecy.
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