Alphatia
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesAlphatia - Arts, beauty, peace, order and harmony, protect Alphatia and confront Alphaks
Razud - Self-determination, independence, liberty, courage, strength, authority, Alphatian
Eiryndul - Intelligent sylvan creatures, magical creatures, elves, illusions and guile, jokes, curiosity, deceit, fun, adventure
Terra - Creation and protection of all forms of life, balance of the life cycle, birth, prosperity and fertility, earth, agriculture
Palartarkan - Magic regarding gravity, air and flight, astronomy and astrology, elemental plane of air, Alphatia (Floating Kingdom of Ar)
Kagyar - Crafts, metallurgy, dwarves, sculpture, construction, miners
Zirchev - Hunting, survival, animals, tolerance, magic, sylvan races, nature, outcasts, lycanthropes
Ixion - Light, sun, strength, knowledge, oppose entropy and evil
Pangloss (Ssu-Ma) - Memory, books, education, tests, history, knowledge, order, scribes
Valerias - Love, passion, desire, arts, charity, fertility, protection
Pharamond - Power, magic, ambition, cleverness, stealth, deceit
Protius - Oceans and marine creatures, water, capriciousness, travel
Eternal General - War, battle, discipline, loyalty, victory, pragmatism, soldiers
Maat - Justice, honour, virtue, integrity, honesty, order, loyalty, redemption, fight chaos and evil
Asterius - Trade, wealth, travel, guile, social climbing, messengers, communication, merchants, thieves,
Koryis - Peace, prosperity, diplomacy, mercy, tolerance, respect of laws
Garal - Gnomes, inventors and thinkers, science and mechanics, crafts
Ka - Protection of life, wisdom, preservation of knowledge, prosperity, healing, magic
Brissard - Domination, slavery, oppression, intrigue
High Spider (Korotiku) - Spiders and aranea, clear thinking, wisdom, guile, cleverness, liberty, cheating, fun
Spider Queen (Aracne Prime) - Spiders and aranea, deceit, oppression, obscurity
Raven - Good luck, fun, games, jokes, cleverness, tricks, hin
Brindorhin - Halflings, security, family, abundance and prosperity
Karaash - Humanoids, strength, war, victory, conquest, tactics
Talitha - Self gratification at the expense of others, egocentricity, immorality, deceit, discord, betrayal, greed, thieves and assassins
Nyx - Darkness and obscurity, undead, necromancy, night, secrets
Marwdyn - Necromancy, death, magical research, capriciousness
Shaper - Peace, charity, equality, justice, tolerance, fight injustice, protect the weak
Alphaks - Destroy Alphatia and the Alphatians, hate, vengeance, massacre
Great One - Dragons and lizardkin, creation, justice, knowledge, magic
Notes:
1. Alphatia is a land of magic par excellence, a large continent to the east of the Known World ruled by a council of a thousand mages of great power and by an emperor elected by the Council of a Thousand. The Alphatians are divided into two classes, each of which enjoys different rights and a different type of legal responsibility: the aristocrats (all those able to cast spells) and the commoners (all the rest of the population, about 90%, excluding the slaves, who aren’t in either class and don’t have rights). Alphatia is a continent permeated by magic in every detail of everyday life, but the nobles are characterised by a notable chaotic, egoist and individualist character which often prevents them from collaborating to pursue a common end. For this, despite its potential, Alphatia is an empire constantly victim of isolationist and autonomist tendencies, in which the most powerful mages try to avoid any responsibility of ruling or political appointment, even though drawing the maximum advantage from their position in order to continue to conduct arcane research and experiments, or simply for enjoying of a wealthy life forgetting their worries and problems thanks to always more sophisticated drugs. For the Alphatian nobles the Immortals are beings that have achieved the maximum power and have transcended their mortality: more than an object of veneration therefore, it is a model to which they aspire in order to reach the same level of power. The faith in the Immortal has instead set root in the commoner class, which have support in the Immortals in the hope of a shift in and of an improvement of their life conditions, even if a good part of the Alphatian commoners have inherited the agnosticism of the aristocracy and they aren’t even slightly interested in of religious questions, preferring to concentrate on their own everyday problems or on the best way for enrichment and living decently.
2. The native Alphatian Immortals are diverse: Razud (the oldest and most powerful), Alphatia (the protector of the empire and of the known order), Pharamond (ancient patron of magic and of the privileges of the noble class), Palartarkan (young patron of air magic), Koryis (patron of pacifism and prosperity), Alphaks (ancient emperor that brought destruction to the original world of the Alphatians for a philosophical dispute and now seeks to exterminate all the survivors), Talitha (patroness of egotism, deceit and theft), Brissard (patron of slavery and intrigue) and Marwdyn (patron of Blackheart and necromancy). Alphatia (appeared after the arrival of the Alphatians on Mystara) collecting the consensus of the majority of the Alphatians and is the patroness of the arts, although her pacifistic and lawful philosophy is a little more strict to all those nobles more marked with chaos and the delirium of omnipotence, who indeed have turned to Pharamond as patron and inspirer. Razud is equally popular both among nobles and commoners (who was an ancient Immortal of the Cypri people already on Old Alphatia), and is considered the patron of the Alphatian spirit of independence and indomitable will, which permits them to attain any goal. Palartarkan is the patron of Floating Ar (the kingdom of flying islands that he created as part of his testimony for becoming Immortal) and is worshipped by the air elementalists. Koryis (he also ascended only after the arrival on Mystara) is becoming the patron of the more moderate and pacifist wing of the nation, and enjoys a good following only in the outer dominions, given that the Alphatians of the motherland consider him too moderate and easygoing and they prefer instead the more enterprising and shrewd Asterius, patron of the non-evil thieves and of the more greedy and sly merchants. Marwdyn finally is the patron of Blackheart and of all those mages that prefer to conduct bizarre magical experiments rather than enter into politics. The young Brissard, although he is an entropic, isn’t considered negatively by the population, since as patron of domination and intrigue he represents the sense of superiority and authority of the Alphatians on the conquered peoples. The only ones to be firmly antagonists of the Alphatians are Talitha and Alphaks: the former is associated to all those that are amoral, corrupt and dark in the empire, protector of traitors, assassins and thieves; the latter instead is the embodiment of destruction and wickedness, author of many attempts of breaking up the empire and massacring the inhabitants and adored only by madmen or by individuals full of hate and rancour towards the Alphatian nobles.
3. All the other Immortals present in the empire have been adored by the Alphatians following their arrival on Mystara and were worshipped exclusively by a certain race or within of a single nation. Eiryndul is the patron of the Shiye elves; Kagyar and Garal are worshipped by all the dwarves and by the gnomes of Stoutfellow and by most craftsmen and engineers in the rest of the empire; Raven and Brindorhin sponsored a good part of the halfling present in the continent (the rest of them follow local cults); Karaash is adored by the humanoids, together with Terra and Ixion; Nyx is the Immortal respected by the necromancers, together with Marwdyn; Protius is considered the protector of the underwater kingdom of Aquas in particular; Ssu-Ma is worshipped with the name of Pangloss (a differentiation created by the Alphatians in order to distinguish it from the Ochalese cult thought inferior), considered the creator of writing and knowledge, and therefore covered a great importance for the nobles; Ixion finds followers especially in the kingdom of Stonewall; Maat is the patroness of Greenspur, the most lawful kingdom of the continent, where justice and nobility are unwavering values; the Eternal General is revered by almost all of the Alphatian military (both spellcasters and commoners) and protect the militaristic kingdom of Randel; Valerias is the patroness of passion, love, and the arts for all the Alphatians; the aranea hidden among the populations of Foresthome and of Blackheart, original inhabitants of these Alphatian nations, are divided instead between the supporters of the High Spider (Korotiku) and those devoted to the evil Queen Spider (Aracne Prime), who urges them to use any means, also the most inhuman, in order to impose their own will on the Alphatians and on the sylvan creatures. The multiracial nation of Limn finally houses the diverse cults devoted to the Great One, the Shaper, Zirchev, Ka, Terra, Ixion and Karaash.