Cult of the High Heroes
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesWorshipped in: Five Shires, Minrothad, Alphatia, Norwold
Brindorhin - Hin, patriotism, security, family, abundance and prosperity
Nob Nar - Audacity, heroic deeds, wanderers, adventurers, revelry
Coberham - Magic, black flame, mysteries, knowledge, halfling
Raven - Good luck, fun, jokes, games, cleverness, tricks, hin***
Karaash - Humanoids, battle, tactics, audacity, rule of the strongest
Bartziluth - Bugbears, fury, combat, war
Wogar - Goblins, war and military tactics, conquest, despotism
Ranivorus - Gnolls, hate, racism, destruction
The hin are a people with a centuries old oral history, in which the epic deeds of the hin heroes provoke a true feeling of adoration. Some of these legendary characters, called the High Heroes, are for that reason venerated as Immortals, even if this practise isn’t carried out according to the typical ways of the human cults. Every High Hero has had an important role in the history of the Five Shires, the motherland of all the halflings spread through the continents of Brun and Alphatia, and he embodies the more classic values of the halfling culture. Furthermore, every one of them is opposed to a legion of demons considered the enemies par excellence of the halflings, since they are the protectors of the humanoid races that have brought most harm to the hin people, and symbols of the perversions and of the more awful vices for the hin.
The principal aim of a hin cleric is in fact that of joining the practice of veneration of a High Hero with the tales of the deeds of these demigods, in a way to always deliver a moral and a feeling of union that strengthens the community. The hin temples are for that reason places consecrated to large common assembles, like plazas, arenas, theatres, large common halls and even inns, near which the priest dwells and where he celebrates the High Heroes with songs, ceremonies, story contests and festivity. In this sense the halfling religion is extremely more informal than the other human or demihuman faiths and because of this it can be assimilated in a more rooted manner by the cheerful and free and easy hin. Thus, even if at first sight it could seem that the halflings are not interested in the Immortals, in reality the faith in the High Heroes and in the principles of hope, well-being and freedom that they represent is so deeply-rooted in the everyday way of living and thinking of the hin as to be natural to them, thus it is invisible to the eyes of the profane, since it is expressed through a series of gestures and rituals that thus have little to do with the common prayers of the other cultures. Thus for example the ritual of the reaping celebrates the abundance proffered by Brindorhin, thus like the days of Fast and Feast celebrate the freedom won through the efforts of Brindorhin and Coberham, while the Days of Jest are a reminder and a homage to cunning and to the exploits of the Raven. Every ballad on Nob Nar or on any other Hero is a prayer to him so that he watches over those that start to sing it and listen to it, and every toast raised to the hin heroes is similarly a gesture of prayer in the hearts of the halflings, all things that demonstrate the great religiosity of a people that they have never lost sight of their own traditions and that jealousy guard them in any part of the world they are found.