here is the last article in my Karameikos series. Having already discussed and revised goblinoid tribes, societies and organizations, and history, we arrive to the the topic of religions, which of course is quite well covered in the official material. So, I'll not be discussing the theology of the CoK or CoT -- these are well known -- but rather their history and organization. The other main part of the article is about two major entropic cults: the Dark Triad (or Cult of Demons), which collects the various references to Leptar and Orcus in canon material, as well as non-canon material about the Witches of Dymrak and the Black Opal Eye; and the Gens Caelenes, the Iron Ring cult introduced in my earlier article on societies and organizations.
A brief coverage of demihuman, goblinoid, and foreign religions closes up the work.
GP
This chapter expands the description of the religions and cults present in Karameikos.
While the Church of Karameikos and the Church of Traladara together attract circa 95% of the human population of Karameikos, there remains a 5% of the population that either follow foreign cults (e.g., churches from Thyatis, Darokin or the Minrothad Guilds) or even darker, entropic cults.
Circa 70% of the human population of Karameikos belongs to the Church of Traladara, the major native religion.
While its belief date back to the Traldar Age of Heroes, the church itself has been around for circa six centuries.
It has suffered several major setbacks with the Silver Purge, the holy wars, and finally the Marilenev rebellion, which all but destroyed a generation of church leaders.
Pantheon
The Church of Traladara worships primarily the three Great Heroes, Halav, Petra and Zirchev.
None of the three is given precedence over the other, as the church stresses the importance of cooperation and strength found in unity.
Several other Immortals are acknowledged as powerful, but remote, forces.
These are mostly the Immortals worshipped by the ancient Traldar -- Ixion, Khoronous, Djaea, Tyche, Asterius, and so on.
However, these Immortals are not generally worshipped and only theology specialists are aware of their existance, names, and rituals.
Most clerics just know that the Tarsian Twelve are powerful Immortals that were once the patron of the Traldar people, but left that role to Halav, Petra and Zirchev.
Modern Traladaran cleric associate the Tarsian Twelve with natural phenomena that are beyond the control of humans -- such as the sun, earth, and weather.
Finally, several lesser heroes are also acknowledged, and local cultual activities are held to honor them.
These may be Immortals, such as Chardastes, or simply long-gone mortal heroes or kings, such as Tarhek the Radiant or Prince Ithron.
The church activities and rituals focus on the historical events of the Song of Halav, with festivals where the battles against the Beastmen are re-enacted, and, on a smaller scale, on the spiritual needs of the worshippers.
Traladaran priests are generally down to earth, and so are their teachings -- generally, they are oriented toward tolerance, goodwill, respect of fellow humans and similar virtues.
The concept of sin is not clearly distinguished from that of crime -- in general, the Traladaran priests did act as judges in the pre-Thyatian clan system, and the modern theology closely reflects that approach, even though modern priests do not have judiciary powers.
History
The Church of Traladara was formed around 400 AC in the town of Marilenev, as a result of the closer interactions between the local Traladaran population and clerics from Thyatis, Harbortown and New Alphatia.
The original Traladaran cult had been much more informal, with clerics generally trained in a master-apprentice system within each major clan.
Since the Traladaran culture was orally transmitted, the priests served primarily as bards, advisors and healers to the Traladaran nobles, in many ways like the modern godi in the Northern Reaches.
Halav was the most popular patron, though Petra was also well liked by the townsfolk, and Zirchev had some following in the more remote communities.
When the Thyatian missionaries started collecting the Song of Halav, and taught the Traladaran how to write, they set the basis for the unification of the religious thought across all of Traladara.
Three main ways of thought emerged, based in the towns of Svoga (near Halag), Marilenev and Selenica.
The Selenican church was heavily influenced by its ties with the Darokin monarchy, and, while named Church of Halav, did actually retain much of the older Traldar pantheon, including Ixion, Khoronus and especially Asterius.
It quickly spread across the mountains to the northern Traladaran clans in Lugsid (modern Threshold) and Vaion (near the site of modern Penhaligon, but on the northern bank of the Shutturga).
Its coat of arms displayed per pale: azure, the moon; or, Halav proper.
The Marilenev chruch was more similar to the modern Church of Traladara, and was the first to bear that name.
It was more influenced by Thyatian missionaries, and it was the first to adopt the brown robe as a formal clerical vestment.
Its coat of arms displayed natural, a priest argent.
The Svogan church had more influences from the neighbouring Five Shires, as well as from Harbortown -- the real power behind the throne in western Traladara at that time.
This church focused its worship on Halav alone, leaving only a lesser role to Petra and Zirchev.
It was also more militant, and in the decades between 400 and 450 AC, it raised a military order, the Knights of Halav.
Its coat of arms displayed natural, a sword or armed argent.
The three churches had slightly different beliefs and philosophies, and controlled territories allied with different powers.
Thus, they did not last last long -- a cruel civil war erupted, and the Svogan Church of Halav was all but destroyed, while the Selenican church survived beyond the mountains under the Alasiyan emirs.
The modern Church of Halav in the Gulf of Hule and the Church of Olgar in Hule are direct descendants of the original Svogan Church of Halav, brought to the Savage Coast by exiled priests from the Halag region.
The Church of Traladara managed to survive through a number of other crises, including the Vampire Wars and the Marilenev Rebellion.
The rebellion brought the death of many church officials who had sided with the Marilenev against young Duke Stefan, leaving the church with few experienced leaders.
Only now is the church recovering, under the leadership of Patriarch Aleksyev Nikelnevich.
Organization
The church is led by the Patriarch of Marilenev, Aleksyev Nikelnevitch (C11), a capable, middle-aged warrior priest.
Unfortunately, there are few other experienced clerics, as the old generation priests are getting too old, and the best members of the generation of the 940 died in the conquest and rebellion.
Moreover, Sergyev's schisma of 995 brought away more priests -- Sergyev himself was the second highest ranking church official, the Patriarch of Krakatos.
A crop of younger priests is being named to important positions, such as the freshly-named Bishop of Kelvin, Balahov, and the Patriarchs of Vaion (Penhaligon) and Vidrin (Vorloi).
However, the Patriarch of Luln (actually, of Halag in exile), Arkadi, has recently died of old age, and the Patriarch is looking for a suitable replacement.
Historically, the Church was organized into twelve Patriarchates (Marilenev, Vidrin, Dmitrov, Krakatos, Halavos, Vaion, Lugsid, Lumm, Halag, Ourosco, Koriszegy, and Svoga), four from each of the three original branches of the church.
In time, the see of the Patriarchs of Krakatos moved to Lazkow, the Patriachates of Halag and Svoga were merged into a single see, and the Patriarchate of Halavos moved first to Volaga and in modern times to Kelvin.
During the Vampire Wars, the Patriarchates of Vaion, Lumm, Koriszegy, and Lugsid were all but destroyed, and have since remained vacant, or assigned as honorary titles to high-ranking priests in Specularum.
Only the Patriarchate of Vaion was reestablished about twenty years ago, in Penhaligon.
There have been talks of re-establishing the Patriarchate of Lugsid in Threshold, but the loss of the Shield of Halav, the famed relic traditionally protected by the Patriarch of Lugsid, as well as the strong presence of the Church of Karameikos in Threshold still render this project infeasible.
The current status of each Patriarchate is reported in Table 1.
I'm very impressed...this is so thorough that I'd actually suggest you try to publish this material.
Well, I don't think I'll ever go beyond this pdf version.
In particular I liked the way that it suggests a Byzantine like setup for the main church, and the Balkans legendary feel to the Dark Triad. Some D&D religion descriptions either sound arbitrary or so convoluted that you think 'who cares' yet this one seems very solid to me. It strengthens already existing national relationships and histories. It's also helpful to have the reference list at the bottom.
Thanks
Sorry I never got around to commenting on it before, but I've been extremely busy.
I like your take on the various groups including the Dark Triad and the Gens Celaenes.
IMC I have made a few changes to the Church of Karameikos. I have decided to ditch Kagyar and Ilsundal and replace them with Protius, Ixion, The 12 Watchers and Terra from the Thyatian pantheon, to better distinguish bewteen human and demihuman pantheons and also bring the Church of Karameikos closer to the Church of Thyatis.
The Gens Celaenes idea is interesting. Does the connection to Sind run further, connecting it to the Temples of Chaos in Hule? IMC, the Iron Ring's bonds are much closer to Hattias so I'm thinking Alphaks would be a strong influence there...
Havard
Sorry I never got around to commenting on it before, but I've been extremely busy.
No problem, thanks for taking the time to comment now
IMC I have made a few changes to the Church of Karameikos. I have decided to ditch Kagyar and Ilsundal and replace them with Protius, Ixion, The 12 Watchers and Terra from the Thyatian pantheon, to better distinguish bewteen human and demihuman pantheons and also bring the Church of Karameikos closer to the Church of Thyatis.
I know, there are several options for the CoK, most of them better than the original. I've tried to minimize changes, and IMO the biggest issue is that, among the primary Immortal, none is Lawful (Ilsundal and Kagyar are, but they're clearly stitched on).
The Gens Celaenes idea is interesting. Does the connection to Sind run further, connecting it to the Temples of Chaos in Hule? IMC, the Iron Ring's bonds are much closer to Hattias so I'm thinking Alphaks would be a strong influence there...
Thanks. The idea is that the Iron Ring has deep connections with Jaibul -- one of the major slave markets in the Known World. Jaibul itself is linked to Hule, but that's more of a political connection than a religious one, as Jaibul religion is controlled by Hel, and the Hulean ToC is dominated by Loki.
GP
No problem, thanks for taking the time to comment now
There's actually a bunch of stuff here that I've been meaning to comment on, including several articles by you, so I'll see what I can do. Good work deserves a comment!
I know, there are several options for the CoK, most of them better than the original. I've tried to minimize changes, and IMO the biggest issue is that, among the primary Immortal, none is Lawful (Ilsundal and Kagyar are, but they're clearly stitched on).
I still support your decision to leave them in as this is the more "official" version. It just seemed like a good place to bring up my alternative version ;)
Thanks. The idea is that the Iron Ring has deep connections with Jaibul -- one of the major slave markets in the Known World. Jaibul itself is linked to Hule, but that's more of a political connection than a religious one, as Jaibul religion is controlled by Hel, and the Hulean ToC is dominated by Loki.
Okay, that makes sense then. At least we have the same group of Entropics at work here.
Speaking of Entropics, am I the only one who has a feeling that the Cult of Halav may be the work of Entropics, ala Hel's work with the Cult of Balthac?
Havard
There's actually a bunch of stuff here that I've been meaning to comment on, including several articles by you, so I'll see what I can do. Good work deserves a comment!
There are a few things around here that I want to get into in some depth but it's a very busy time in my industry right now. The deadline is nearly here for 2007 retirement plan contributions so I'll have time soon.
Speaking of Entropics, am I the only one who has a feeling that the Cult of Halav may be the work of Entropics, ala Hel's work with the Cult of Balthac?
This is the way I'd like to see it as well. Makes for some very interesting possibilities! :evillaugh
Speaking of Entropics, am I the only one who has a feeling that the Cult of Halav may be the work of Entropics, ala Hel's work with the Cult of Balthac?
It's a definite possibility -- actually, it's either that, or the Cult is a genuine cult of Halav, which seems less likely, since the cultists are mostly Chaotic, IIRC.
GP
It's a definite possibility -- actually, it's either that, or the Cult is a genuine cult of Halav, which seems less likely, since the cultists are mostly Chaotic, IIRC.
But, at the same time, they're not evil (although some followers of entropics are actually misguided people instead of evil... which is much like the CoH, btw). Besides, what would an entropic gain creating this cult? Hm... pehaps sap part of the Traladaran Three religion making the people believe that since Stephan is Halav reincarnated, there could be no true clerics of Halav around? But, then, arent the cultists supposed to be clerics of Halav thenselves?
But, at the same time, they're not evil (although some followers of entropics are actually misguided people instead of evil... which is much like the CoH, btw).
Yes, more or less like the cleric of Balthac in WotI. Also, note that some of them are indeed evil, or at least not that good (see for example Klaus Jorga in Hail the Heroes).
Besides, what would an entropic gain creating this cult?
Look up Steven Wilson's "Red Hand of Doom and Karameikos" writeup in the Vaults, it gives some good ideas on the issue.
GP
Yes, more or less like the cleric of Balthac in WotI. Also, note that some of them are indeed evil, or at least not that good (see for example Klaus Jorga in Hail the Heroes).
Indeed
Look up Steven Wilson's "Red Hand of Doom and Karameikos" writeup in the Vaults, it gives some good ideas on the issue.
Wow, it's a great idea!!