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In today’s Eberron Player's Guide preview, we introduce elements of the Eberron religion and information on the deities!
Religion is important in Eberron, but not because the deities take an obvious and direct interest in the world. Rather, organized faith is important in both a spiritual and a secular sense. Temples and shrines are sources of community and peace (or conspiracy and corruption) in villages and towns. In cities, highranking members of the clergy can wield as much power as the nobility.
In this war-torn time, numerous Khorvairians have come to scorn deities and higher powers. Just as many, however, actively participate in organized religion as a way to make sense of the world.
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The Sovereign Host
Good
The Sovereign Host is a group of nine deities collectively representing the entire world, but focusing on aspects of civilization—community, the protection of the weak, the slaying of wild beasts, fertility, construction, and the like. The Sovereign Host is the most widely worshiped body in Khorvaire. Nearly everyone offers prayers to the Host as a whole and to individual deities for specific actions. For example, a farmer might whisper a prayer of thanks to Arawai when his baby is born healthy, and a blacksmith might sing the songs of Onatar when working at her forge.
The Sovereign Host finds worshipers among all races and from all walks of life—peasants, kings, and adventurers. The faithful worship the pantheon as a whole, rather than devoting themselves to specific deities. Worshipers of the Sovereign Host are called Vassals.
As a group, the Host exhorts its followers to:
- Place your trust in the community. The group is stronger by far than the individual. The great light of a city is composed of the thousands of flames of its citizens. You must ensure that your flame is as bright as you can make it.
- Treat others as they deserve to be treated. If they haven’t harmed you or yours, treat them kindly.
- Bring the light of civilization to the darkness of the wilds.
The Dark Six
Evil
Complementing the Sovereign Host and its focus on the light of civilization, the Dark Six represent the darkness of the wilds. The two pantheons were once combined, but a great schism separated them. The Dark Six now oppose the Host on all fronts. Where the Sovereign Host is generally good, the Dark Six are by and large evil. Where the Sovereign Host values community and government, the Dark Six value individuality and anarchy. The Dark Six are cruel, passionate, brutal, and wild.
Although worship of the Dark Six is not common, the people of Khorvaire haven’t forgotten that these deities have power over aspects of the world. Although the average peasant reveres the Sovereign Host, few people are so assured that they refuse to offer a prayer to the Dark Six when appropriate. Everyone knows that the neighbors do the same, although none ever speak of it.
With the exception of the mysterious Traveler, the Dark Six are evil deities, and thus inappropriate sources of veneration for PCs. (As described in the Player’s Handbook, a character can worship an evil deity without sharing that alignment, but doing so is tricky.) For that reason, only the Traveler is discussed below (the other members of the Six are described briefly at the end of this section).
The Traveler
Unaligned
The great trickster, the Traveler is a deity of cunning, deception, and change. The Traveler is a consummate shapechanger and master of disguises, and thus the being’s true nature is unknown—texts variously refer to the Traveler as "it" rather than "he" or "she." Many doppelgangers, shifters, lycanthropes, thieves, and rogues revere the Traveler, as do a few artificers who focus on the deity’s innovation and cleverness.
The Traveler is sometimes called the Giver of Gifts, but proverbs warn that one must be wary of its gifts. Ostensibly a member of the Dark Six, the Traveler seems to have no connection, familial or otherwise, to its fellows.
The Traveler’s commandments must often be inferred, for its holy texts are few. Its tenets are:
- Revealing your true self is weakness. Shroud yourself in misdirection and disguise so that even you do not know what dwells in your core.
- Nothing is permanent. Ensure that change improves your lot and damages your enemies.
- The best weapons are cunning plans and intricate deceptions. Mortal minds are predictable and easily manipulated.
The Pantheons and Deities of Eberron
Faith, Pantheon, or Deity |
Alignment |
Areas of Influence |
The Sovereign Host |
Good |
All the world, focused primarily on aspects of civilized life |
Arawai |
Good |
Agriculture, fertility, the wilderness as natural resources |
Aureon |
Unaligned |
Knowledge, law, arcane lore and magic |
Balinor |
Unaligned |
Beasts, the hunt, the cycle of life |
Boldrei |
Good |
Community, home, hearth |
Dol Arrah |
Lawful good |
Light (physical and metaphorical, the goodness of the soul), honor, selflessness, military strategy, war |
Dol Dorn |
Unaligned |
Courage, duty, physical prowess, soldiers and warriors, war |
Kol Korran |
Unaligned |
Wealth, trade, commerce |
Olladra |
Good |
Fortune, luck, success |
Onatar |
Unaligned |
Forges, crafts, industry, fire |
The Dark Six |
Evil |
All the world, especially the primal wilderness and nature’s destructive forces |
The Devourer |
Chaotic evil |
Storm, flood, famine, other aspects of nature's wrath; also, the sea |
The Fury |
Chaotic evil |
Wrath, passion, vengeance |
The Keeper |
Evil |
Gluttony, greed, necromancy |
The Mockery |
Evil |
Violence, betrayal, dishonorable victory, love of carnage, war |
The Shadow |
Chaotic evil |
Ambition, dark magic, corruption |
The Traveler |
Unaligned |
Change, cunning, innovation, deception |
The Silver Flame |
Lawful good |
Protection, generosity, destruction of evil and the unnatural |
The Blood of Vol |
Unaligned |
Divine power of the blood, immortality, undeath |
The Path of Light |
Lawful good |
Light, progress, self-improvement, freedom |
Elf Religion |
Unaligned |
The elf people and society |
The Undying Court |
Unaligned |
Immortality, elven society, history |
The Spirits of the Past |
Unaligned |
Glory, elven history and heroes |
Khyber Cults |
Chaotic evil |
Madness, destruction, aberrant creatures, darkness |
Excerpt Schedule
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