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Divinities of Renewal

An important note on the gods: None of the divine have a set gender. For those who have a stated gender, that represents the majority opinion of their churches and devotees. Among the clergy of the Wanderer and the Chronicler, there is no consensus on the deity's gender, and few among their celebrants hold a firm opinion. Outside a particular church, few of the laity have devoted themselves to a single deity. A farmer might begin their day with a prayer to Neris to bless the day's work, swear by Baerthos when their shovel breaks, and whisper a plea to Livinia over a pregnant cow as she gives birth. Religious beliefs tend to focus on the here and now, rather than the afterlife, with most churches treating questions regarding the afterlife as unknowable to the living. The fact that some can be brought back to life with the appropriate magic tends to indicate there is an afterlife, but none of those who return can remember anything that occurred while they were dead. The only exceptions are those whose souls were trapped on the mortal plane before passing on.

Most importantly, the divine rarely interferes in the mortal realm. No avatars, no half-divine children, and damn few burning bushes. Most direct divine intervention takes the form of visions or prophetic dreams and providing guidance to spellcasting clerics who specifically request it. Spellcasting clergy are a distinct minority, making up less than 30% of the total body of any church. Some clergy may have spellcasting from a class other than cleric, with the Wanderer having a large number of bards, the Chronicler wizards, and 90% of Neris's spellcasting clergy being druids.

In terms of morality, each church tends to preach appropriate behavior according to the purview of their deity.

Livinia - Goddess of Life and Death, Medicine and Poison, Birth and Rot

The Church of Livinia trains doctors, certifies executioners, maintains gardens of useful plants, and provides guidance for new parents and those caring for the dying. It also establishes hospitals, trains and maintains an adventuring monastic order dedicated to putting down intelligent and feral undead.

Baerthos - God of Smiths and Miners, Stone and Metal, and all High Places and Deep Places

The Smithy of Baerthos teaches occupational safety, care for tools, and respect for craft and art. It also advocates for workers and certifies craft masters.

Neris - Goddess of Wood and Field, Hunter and Hunted, and The Green

The Bower of Neris teaches respect for the natural world and its dangers, proper hunting practices, and farming techniques that have fewer negative effects on the environment. It also maintains a seed repository, a library of bestiaries, and several associated organizations that manage environmental damage and the growing pollution problem.

The Grand Marshall - God of War and Diplomacy, Destruction and Creation, and Those Who Break and Bind

The Barracks of the Grand Marshal teaches right conduct in war, proper handling and care of weapons and armor, and militia management. They also hold tournaments of arms, train village and town militias, and train military jurists in upholding the laws of war and conducting courts martial.

The Wanderer - God(?) of Rovers and Tinkers, of Going Forth and Coming Home, of Ship and Horse, and of Stories and Trade

The Wanderer's church is far less organized than the others. Clerics of the Wanderer are trained in a more master/apprentice relationship as they travel, rather than attending a school in one place. Each of Their followers is encouraged to act on their own initiative in support of the Wanderer's purview, whether as a wandering storyteller, itinerant guard, travelling peddler, or mendicant healer. Those who have settled for a time spend their time where travellers gather, at taverns, market fairs, suttler's shops, or inns, with the aim of aiding those who will be moving on.

The Chronicler - Goddess(?) of Book and Scroll, of Truth and Fact, and of Scholars and Scribes

The Scriptorium of the Chronicler maintains archives and libraries, transcribes documents, teaches reading and writing, and trains village and town schoolteachers. It also encourages its clergy to maintain broad correspondence both among themselves and and submit reports on the goings on in the wider world.

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An important note on the various churches: every church is also home to a number of cults. Some of these cults are benign, a few decidedly less so. The Wanderer is either an exception or the worst example. Every member of their clergy is effectively a cult of one, given the church's disregard for orthodoxy. One cult of note is within the Church of Livinia: The Initiates of the Final Turn. This particularly dangerous cult believes that the world is on a constant precipice of ultimate destruction and the kindest thing would be to end the cycle of life, death, and rebirth once and for all. The Church of Livinia has devoted significant efforts to stamping this cult out, but it has quiet adherents at the top of the church' hierarchy that are preventing its final destruction.

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Game stuff Intro and Base Line info

Basic information: Approximately 6500 years before game start, a mighty empire fell, and fell hard. Earthquakes, a continent split into two, devastation on a global scale. Civilization collapsed and took a couple of millennia to rise again in scattered kingdoms that were largely dominated by one or two species. About 1500 years before game start, a new empire arose on one continent, and, by the time our heroes enter the story, is on a gentle decline: growing autonomy in the provinces, a largely decadent and responsibility-averse aristocracy, and a large imperial bureaucracy that keeps the whole shambling mess rolling somehow. A large bureaucracy ensures a relatively high degree of literacy, and the average standard of living is also higher than average for a slowly crumbling empire.

Quick geography:

In the south and southwest is Therona Province, home to the imperial capital and the University of Therona, and populated by every sentient species in the empire, particularly tieflings and dragonborn. Up the eastern coast are the Seamist Mountains and Rivermount Province, home of dwarves and dragons, and the seat of the empire's manufacturing might. The population is mostly dwarves, with a heavy salting of gnomes, humans, and dragonborn in the friendlier foothill regions. The center of the continent is Marchers' Moor Province, a place of rolling hills, swamps, and bogs. Home to sprawling ranches that produce the finest cattle and horses in the Empire, the low total population ensures this is a place few people are from, and most are only passing through. To the north and northwest is Dragon's Coast Province, home to fisherfolk and small farmers, which produces seafood, wool, and some of the Empire's finest soldiers. Finally, off the southwestern coast are the Stormlast Isles, the last province brought into empire. Home to the empire's rowdiest citizens, the Isles teem with pirates, privateers, pearl divers, fisherfolk, and lost academics. There's technically a provincial capital, but the provincial governor spends most of the year at sea, taking his court from island to island, addressing the needs of the people and avoiding his husband.

It's a long intro, but at least I didn't leave any footnotes.

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A Primer on our Proud Empire of Theron

By Professora Theadora Drusia Corvia

It has come to our attention that the universal education established in previous imperial reigns has become sadly lax in the outer provinces, and that even in our capital some children are not receiving the minimum schooling encouraged in better times. Therefore, I have undertaken the project of producing a series of documents containing information every imperial citizen should know about our illustrious empire.

A Brief History of The Founding of the Empire

It should be common knowledge that the Empire was born, speaking poetically, with the rise of Theron I. The man who would become Imperator Theron I was born in a moderately prosperous fishing village called Marshgate. His birth name and early life have been lost to history, but it is well documented in several unrelated chronicles of the time that he wandered under the name Theron from his early adulthood onward. He and his companions played an outsized role in a number of wars and plots between the minor kingdoms of the time. He first rose to real power in his 30th year, when he was adopted into the ruling family of Rivermount, whose capital city of Wimberly Mills is still a major center of trade and industry for the empire. By his forty-fifth year, he had expanded his holdings through treaty and force of arms to cover the eastern third of the continent. By his fiftieth year, work had begun on what was to become his new capital, Therona, in order to settle rising feelings of jealousy among the vassal states of Wimberly Mills’ apparent status as favored city of the Imperial purse. The new capital, christened Therona, quickly became a center of trade and power, as its prime location at the mouth of the Wimberly River drew merchant attention and its rising administrative functions as the new capital attracted power seekers of all stripes. By the time of Theron I’s abdication in his eightieth year in favor of his adopted heir, Theron II, Therona had grown into the premier city of the empire, attracting not only money and power, but also art, culture, and scholarship, leading Theron II to charter the Imperial University of Therona in the fifteenth year of his reign.

It was Theron IV who completed the unification of the continent under the Imperial banner, with the surrender of the last independent lords captain of the Stormlast Isles at the Battle of Halford Strait.

The Provinces

Capital (or Therona) Province: Also called the heart of the Empire, Capital Province is the center of imperial power. Ruled from the Imperial seat at Therona, the governorship of Capital Province is almost always held by the Heir Adoptus and is considered the final test before the Imperator retires and the Heir ascends to the Imperial throne. On a number of occasions, the Imperator Emeritus has held the governorship for a few years while the Emperor decides on his own Heir. Therona is the largest, and mostly the only, city of Capital Province. The next largest town, Shallitport, is located across Wanderer's Sound where the Finger meets the base of the Seamist Peaks and is the primary port for the eastern coast. The rest of the province is primarily rich farmland dotted with farming villages and market towns.

Rivermount Province: The heart of the Empire’s mineral wealth, Rivermount Province is home to the Seamist Peaks and the largest dwarven freeholds in the Empire. The capital of Rivermount, Wimberly Mills, is an ancient city experiencing a painful rebirth into a modern industrial city. The primary destination for the output of the dwarven mines and foundries, Wimberly Mills is now better known for iron and steel mills than the grain it was famed for in antiquity. Water-driven machinery clatters and grinds night and day, and the influx of workers from both the farms of the plains and the mines of the mountains have led to an exploding class of low skilled laborers seeking the manufacturing jobs now widely available in the city. The better parts of the city have escaped the worst industrial impacts, and the nouveau riche manufacturers have invested in efforts to beautify and restore the ancient town’s public works, from fountains to bathhouses to theaters.

Marcher’s Moor Province: For many years at the start of the Empire, Marcher's Moor was just what the name implies: the edge of the Empire, dominated by marshes and rolling hills. Now, it is the crossroads of the empire, the middle of everything but the center of nothing. Marcher's Moor is a place everyone passes through but nothing comes from. The primary industry is taverns, inns, and road stations, though some of the best horse and cattle breeders also make their homes here, on sprawling ranches where they raise some of the finest stock in the Empire.

Grass and Shadows Province: Once an independent kingdom ruled by a strange dual monarchy, Grass and Shadows Province is home to the Endless Plain and the Deepest Woods. Dominated respectively by orcish nomads and elven woodsmen, this Province was incorporated into the empire at the end of the reign of Theron III. Despite their loose attachment to Imperial rule, this province produces some of the finest woodcrafts and leather goods available anywhere.

Dragon’s Coast Province: This odd province has long been a place of fanciful tales told by a hard, pragmatic people. More than one of the Empire's finest soldiers have come from this province, where most citizens have a hardscrabble life as fishermen, loggers, subsistence farmers, and shipwrights, but the region has more than its share of mysteries, starting with its name. There has never been an authenticated dragon sighting in the area since it was annexed by the empire, but dragon imagery is almost universal in their artwork and design sensibilities, particularly dragon flame.

Stormlast Province: Not a unified province, per se, but more a broad archipelago of scattered islands that share a culture and history. The nominal capital at Port Ballard (named, ironically, for the last of the Lords Commanding to surrender to the Imperial Navy) is practically empty for half the year, as the Captain Governor makes their rounds of the major settlements on each island, dispensing justice and settling disputes for those who can't make passage to the provincial capital in the other half of the year. Primary industries include fishing, shipping, and agriculture, the last focused on sugarcane and fruits.

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Sometimes, it’s just not worth it to give your bumbling neonates, awkward ancillae, or pedantic elders more rope with which to hang themselves (politically, of course, since breathing isn’t a biological necessity for vampires).