Introduction
Religion is a deeply fascinating area of study for many theologians, philosophers and indeed scientists. We live in a galaxy in which we can be nearly certain that gods existed, rose and eventually fell.
Whilst now very few people in the galaxy are religious in the sense of following a god, it could be argued that many revere and worship Chaos in a religious manner. This has come with the greater study and understanding of the universe around us, and as such studying the religions of old can allow us to better contextualise the times the people of old lived in and the relation they had to the world around them.
The Heavenly Orders
From comparing and contrasting with religions of other stellar societies and from analysing the roles of many of the deities within Padian religious lore, two heavenly orders seem to be present, Primordials and the Gods. It is theorised there was indeed a chronology in the galaxy in which earlier powerful deities were replaced by a far more numerous order of somewhat lesser deities.
It is worth noting, the heavenly orders discussed here do not constitute what we believe was the entire makeup of them on a galactic scale, only those that appeared in the religions and myths of Padia.
It is also worth noting that whilst these deities have been ascribed to specific domains or characterised with certain powers, these may not be true representations of the true deities, their intentions, appearance or their abilities.
The Primordials
Chronos – A primordial deity of time, Chronos was one of the first living and breathing deities of the Cosmos and a being who could wield powers over time.
Aethul – A primordial deity of space, like Chronos one of the first living deities of the Cosmos. Where Chronos would go on to try dominate the other Primordials, Aethul would seek to spread the fabric of Chaos throughout the galaxy and beyond.
Tiamat – A primordial deity of life, Tiamat is often nicknamed ‘The Mother’. On Padia, she created the first sentient beings, dragons, as a means to impress her lover Chronos, and grant him an army for his dominion over the other Primordials.
Kamal – The primordial deity of death, and the first primordial to die. Kamal was slain by Tiamat and their essence used to create the first sentient beings. Kamal realised that death meant a re-joining with primordial Chaos however, and made a bargain to instead shuttle the souls of the dead to the fabric of Chaos.
Lutiya – The only primordial deity to be formally codified into the living order of gods that would follow them. Lutiya is known as a god of wisdom, but as a primordial was a deity of balance. Often depicted as a great serpent (in later years, a dragon) that coiled around the spine of the world, Lutiya was a key figure in the downfall of the Primordials, using Tiamat and Chronos’ army against them by granting the dragons higher sentience. Lutiya seems to be a figure most directly related to Padia.
The Order of Gods
Metis – The God of Order. Metis is worshipped as the overgod in Dodecatheism, likely due to his role as a disciplined but neutral being.
Asmodeus – God and Overlord of the Hells.
Mahina – Goddess of the Moon, Navigation and Reproduction. Attributed to have produced the mortal races of Padia, along with her lover Auror.
Auror – God of the Dawn, Vitality and Youth.
Sula – The Goddess of Wealth and Fertility.
Tandr – God of Duty and Honour. Depicted as a deformed but stalwart warrior, Tandr was the prime deity for the early Viga religion of warriors and raiders.
Amun – The God of War. East and West Ammon were named in his honour.
*Tiamat – Never fully codified into religions, but often worshipped in cults, Tiamat became a figure representing ambition and greed.
Farun – The God of Rivers, Lakes and the Harbour. Farun is seen as a partner of Kamal in Dwarven theology, carrying souls along the rivers to the afterlife.
Elil – The God of Judgement, Winds and Storms. Elil also played a prominent role in the early Viga religion, attributed to send powerful storms and unkind winds to the unjust.
Lipa – The Goddess of Love and Beauty. Said to be a child born of Kamal before their death, left in the solitude of the void for eons before finally entering the Cosmos and stunning it with her radiant beauty.
Vulc – The God of the Forge. In Dwarven mythology, Vulc is said to have created dwarves in his image, forged of stone, metal and gem, then imbued with the blood of the dying primordial Kamal.
*Lutiya – The God of Wisdom and Balance. The last of the Primordials and the one responsible for their downfall, Lutiya would find significant worship in Padia, with the iconic symbology of a great snake (sometimes depicted as a drake) coiled around a central spine of the world, like around an apple core.
Karak – The God of the Wild. Karak was worshipped particularly by the Mal people of the Xiunan steppe.
Jian Ti – The Goddess of Hearth and Home, Harmony and the Earth she appears in many of the religions of early Xiunan, under various depictions.
Assir – The God of Wind and Speed.
Wutha – The God of Earth and Vitality.
Huna - Goddess of Fertility.
Tal – God of the Burning Sun. or God of the Heavens.
Jeog – God of Life.
Kiki – Goddess of the Forests.
Pore – God of the Sea.
The Known Padian Religions
Poqiri – Founded 1108 BPT
The oldest known religion of Padia, Poqiri was an animistic religion followed by early tribes of the Northern Wastes. Traces of Poqiri have been found in both Atas and Xiunan, with it being more prevalent in many of the beliefs of Xiunan cultures. This is thought to be due to the evolution of the Viga religion seeming to gain an upper hand in Poqiri.
In Poqiri many of the gods worshipped have similar names to those found in other religions, such a Qoraq, a god of nature, Aurok, a god of the sun, and Eolil, a god of the winds. The religion was very telling of its landscape, with gods of natural processes being those most worshipped, and little to no mention of gods of more conceptual origin such as love, war or duty.
Gohism – Founded 702 BPT
A religion popular across much of Xiunan at the time, Gohism is best described as a trinity religion. The religion comprised of three deities, Jian Ti, a goddess of harmony, Jeog, a god of life, and Kham, a god of death. The religion never depicted the trio in opposition to one another, in fact the opposite, the trio were represented more as companions or even lovers. Gohism would teach that one should strive to find a balance between serenity and passion (harmony and life), thrill and danger (life and death) and peace and inaction (harmony and death).
It is believed that the god Kham may be taken from the primordial deity Kamal, also worshipped in the Kamalian religion of the dwarves.
Liuism – Founded 668 BPT
Liuism was a religion found across Xiunan and one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Liuism followed the teachings of a deity figure named Liu, supposedly once a mortal being who ascended to the heavens after finding perfect internal harmony. Liu the supposedly governs the order of the world from the heavens, however cannot do so alone. Devout Liuists strive to follow in Liu’s footsteps and ascend themselves, so they may aid in his struggle against the forces of Chaos.
Liuism was one of the only surviving old Xiunani religions within the various imperial dynasties after the rise of Ziwo Xian and even after the rise of the Jin Empire.
Even modern scholars love studying and debating Liuism. Many posit the figure of Liu could be an interpretation of Lutiya, the primordial deity of balance, whilst others are fascinated with the parallels the religions draws with the modern understanding of the fabric of Chaos, even positing that Chaos is presented as a near antagonistic being, with the figure of Liu, whether it be representative of Lutiya or not, protecting mortal-kind from its will.
Viga – Founded 615 BPT
One of the oldest organised religions known to Atas, the Viga religion was followed by some humans of the northern wastes and carried with them as they migrated south. The primary deities were Tandr, the prime deity, Lipa, the wife of Tandr, and Elil, their temperamental son. The religion took particular focus on the family, and the duty of the father and able sons to provide for their family by any means necessary. The religion had a complex relationship with the idea of justice, with immoral acts being seen as often necessary within a warrior’s life, but with the punishment of winds and storms always catching up with them. This cyclical justice is best seen in their beliefs of the afterlife, in which they believed the warriors, male or female, would atone for their injustices by serving in the armies of Tandr, while innocent women and children would find paradise in the realm of Lipa. Men that never became warriors would be bound to the world as frozen trees for their inaction, something seen as a significantly grim fate.
The religion is characteristic of the place of its origins, cold and harsh lands in which very little could be gained without raiding elsewhere.
Karadrim – Founded 567 BPT
One of the longest continually worshipped known religions, Karadrim finds itself rooted especially in the steppe nomadic cultures in the north of Xiunan. The religion orders six deities, with the chief deity being Karak, god of the wilds, and the other five deities being fragments of his will. The other five deities are Assir, god of wind and speed, Wutha, the god of earth and vitality, Huna, goddess of fertility, Tal, god of the burning sun and Jian Ti, goddess of hearth and home.
The religion had a single opposing deity, Aesmon, lord of the underworld. Aesmon is characterised as a tyrannical figure, wishing to take free will from mortal-kind. In Karadrim belief, where most find their way to the endless plains of Karak, those evil and vile souls find themselves dragged to the underworld to serve Aesmon. Most scholars have come to the agreement that Aesmon is another interpretation of Asmodeus, God of the Hells.
Kamalian – Founded 432 BPT
A dwarven religion centred around themes of death and cycles. The religion follows three prime deities, Kamal, Farun and Vulc. Dwarves believed that their mountains were the body of Kamal, the rivers their blood, guided by Farun, and the dwarves themselves forged by Vulc. Within the religion, leaving the mountain, and certainly any river, represents risking the soul, which needs to be carried through the rivers to reach the afterlife, where one would meet Kamal and find their afterlife.
Tagism – Founded 387 BPT
The religion of the early orcs of Atas, Tagism was a fluid religion that seemed to adopt many of the deities of other religions it interacted with. The religion in its purest form however followed Amun, a god of war, with strongly founded beliefs in a cosmic cycle of life, in which death, and in particular bloodshed, would breed new life. As Tagists interacted with followers of the Viga religion, the role of the goddess Lipa was adopted into Tagism, but with her being the wife of Amun. When eventually interacting with Mahlor religions, it is thought Tagists attributed Amun and Lipa to Auror and Mahina respectively, with Amun the fiery warrior of the day, and Lipa the caring lover of the night.
Aqaris – Founded 18 BPT
A strange religion, Aqaris was a niche and short-lived religion which worshipped a swathe of deities often depicted strangely in eggs. None of the codified gods of Atas or indeed Xiunan were ever mentioned within the religion, save for one, Lutiya, who was represented more as a concept of harmony and balance than as an actual deity. Despite being niche, Aqaris has been found in wildly unrelated locations across all of Padia. Many believe it may have been the religion of the Sea Elves of old mythology due to the mystery that has surrounded them.
Wyrmenid – Founded 0 PPT
The religion followed by dragons and later the draconids of the dragonlands and Duchy of Azuros. The religion held to primary deities, Tiamat and Lutiya. The religion inherently had a divide, with one form, Tiawyrm presenting Tiamat as the prime deity in opposition to Lutiya, and then Lutwyrm, in which Lutiya was worshiped as the prime deity in opposition to Tiamat.
Mahlor - Founded 83 PPT
A religion founded by the first elven settlers of the Nythla Dorei, the religion was relatively peaceful, with two primary deities not in opposition, but locked within a necessary cycle. Those gods were Mahina and Auror, the Goddess of the Moon and the God of the Dawn, who were depicted as lovers and caretakers of mortal-kind. It was believed the two gods lived at the top of the World Tree with one resting while the other toiled. In a modern context this centralisation around the World Tree is understandable due to the sun and moon’s placement within the sky.
When Dodecatheism was eventually founded, it barely changed any of the attributes of Sula and Auror, making it incredibly easy to adopt and spread to the elves of the Northern Forests. Whilst it would easily spread, it spread as a somewhat heresy, Malo-Dodecatheism, in which the overgods were Mahina and Auror, rather than Metis.
Sulurban – Founded 168 PPT
Referred to as the religion of the city, Sulurban was founded within Pylon and spread to many of the other old city states of Atas. Sula was its prime deity, who was said to have helped found Pylon when the warrior Euthemos, its first king, was tasked to found a city where earth, sea and sky would meet, in atonement for the death of his first wife. Euthemos was given a prophecy by a seer that told him that he would see a pure white cow that would be the answer to his salvation. One day, after slaying another great monster, a tournament was held in Euthemos' honour. To begin the tournament, the people brought forward a pure white cow for sacrifice. Remembering the prophecy, Euthemos stopped the sacrifice and instead ordered the cow freed. Euthemos, his wife and a growing contingent of people, followed the cow for 12 days and nights until the cow finally rested and settled at the southern coastline. Euthemos declared this place to be a new city, then promptly sacrificed the cow to Sula. Sula supposedly instructed Euthemos to remove and plant the bones of the cow, which then grew overnight to become the first buildings of the city. The city was named Pylon in honour of these first divine structures sprouted from pillars of bone.
Tonalnanimism – Founded 212 PPT
Tonalnanimisim was a small but intricate religion worshipped within the Scattered Isles. The religion placed belief in ancestry and the existence of a spirit realms, from which spirits could influence the proceedings of mortal life.
Through a modern lens, many of the deities, though not codified like many other gods of the time, seem to map onto many primordials, gods and even onto Chaos itself, in the case of their deity Tonalnan. Even their beliefs on how spirits could influence the world could be seen as a certain perspective on how the fabric of Chaos, comprised of souls of the dead, influences the events of the cosmos.
Lathian – Founded 232 PPT
Founded within the city of Latus, Lathian was a dualistic religion which revolved around idea of order and discipline. The prime deity was Metis, who was said to control the heavens, then his opposite was Asmodeus, who was said to control the Hells. The world, or mid-realm, was the domain of mortals, but their actions upon it would determine their afterlife. A good person would ascend to the heavens, while a sinful person would descend to the hells.
Uli’Tal – Founded 295 PPT
Uli’Tal was a fascinating religion of the Uliuli peoples of the Sunburnt Isles. The religion had two ‘parental’ figures, Tal, the sky-father, and Huna, the earth-mother. They were in such deep love they were inseparable, until a trio of their children separated them. The successful child was Kiki, goddess of the forests, who supposedly separated the pair by raising logs to hold them apart, which became trees. The second child, Pore, tamed the sky-father’s unrelenting tears, which formed choppy seas, becoming god of the sea. The third child, Elil ,calmed the earth-mother, who breathed flames of anger, with calming winds, becoming god of the winds. The religion developed many more gods and demi-gods, placing belief that the stars in the night sky were the gods themselves. This gives great context to the Uliuli culture, which obsessed with astronomy and was reliant on the stars for navigation.
Modern scholars find many striking oddities with the Uli’Tal religion, which seems to quite directly use deities from religions around the world without any indication of how they would come to have such a directly identical name for these deities, which otherwise have been found to be misnamed or reinterpreted through different cultures. This then only further feeds into the mystery of how the Uliuli came to live on the Sunburnt Isles when there is little indication of any land bridge between the isles and the Northern Wastes the earliest humans have been traced from.
Chronae - Founded 312 PPT
The least known religion of Padia, with very little remnants of the religion to study. The religion was found sparingly in often isolated tribal societies, and found in the mysterious native societies present on the west of Cadronia. From what archaeologists and theologians have been able to understand, the religion obsesses with two concepts, time, ruled by Chronos, and space, ruled by Aethul. It is also believed the religion holds these two lords as tyrannical, only able to be defeated by chosen mortals, with mastery over time and space, who are worshipped like gods.
It is of no surprise that the prevalent belief of those that study Chronae from a modern perspective is that the chosen mortals seem eerily reminiscent of Chaos Born. As such there is a belief that perhaps this religion developed in societies in which Chaos Born passed through and left a lasting impression. However, the existence of the religion around the world, with seemingly similar depictions and philosophy, indicates that there may be a little more intelligent and purposeful design to the religion, maintaining its mystery.
Ziwo Xian – Founded 331 PPT
Founded after the defeat of the First Abyssal Incursion in Xiunan, Ziwo Xian was a religion centred around the successes of mortals and their ascent to near-divinity. The religion effectively worshipped the celestial emperor of whichever incumbent dynasty and revered them as a near god-like figure. To ever meet and speak to the emperor was seen as a privilege, and an emperor’s blessing was seen as incredibly valuable.
The religion tried to instil principles of duty and collectiveness, claiming that Xiunan was only ever as strong as its weakest member, and it was the responsibility of all to raise up the empire, as overseen by the celestial emperor.
In a modern framework, it is clear that the fervour for Ziwo Xian was founded in the belief of the self after the natives of Xiunan repelled the abyssal incursions. For citizens at the time, it would have seemed the gods had abandoned them with the nightmares of demonkind being unleashed upon them. It is understandable that where some may have been led astray if only distant and ambiguous gods were to be turned to, having a far more tangible leader to worship is a more secure option. This did however require the legitimacy and divine mandate of the incumbent emperor to be maintained and, if a war was seeming to be lost, could lead to a rapid collapse on a societal level, as often happened.
Dodecatheism – Founded 1641 PPT
Where other religions in Padia had sought to worship singular or small collections of deities, Dodecatheism sought to codify the known major gods of Atas into a singular religion, with Metis as a leader figure.
Cynically, from a modern perspective, this can be seen as the blatant and successful attempt by Nerita and, soon after, other powers to create a more religiously open society that could placate and control a larger populous more effectively. It is of no surprise that Dodecatheism led quite seamlessly into the more secular and later non-religious societies that came after the fall of the gods in The Ravaging, even if its events were unknown to Padians.
Concluding Thoughts
In some ways, studying the religions of Padia conjures more questions than answers, with mysteries carved across the face of their theological history.
One interesting observation is the paving stones the two latest religions made towards the abandonment of the gods, with organised religion becoming used more as a political tool. This contrasts the earlier religions, in which it seems clearer than people turned to the gods in the hope of a better life, or for guidance on how one should live.
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