Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[squamous]

THIS IS A THREAD FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES ONLY



Mankind was born from sin, and it seems that to sin he shall return. Since the days of the First Men, who ate the flesh of gods and in doing so became them, only to turn against one another in anthropophagic frenzy, ruin has followed our people. Stumbling from one madness to another, the world crawls with our mistakes. Warring kingdoms, monstrous creations, shameful degenerations, and things far worse. Yet still, hope persists. The Great Faiths, wardens of civilization, grant what comfort they can offer, and salve the cannibalistic hunger inflicted upon us through the deeds of our ancestors, even if their patrons have long been silent. The wisdom of Metan, the humility of the Savior, the guidance of the Diel, and the new, daring hope of Multiplicitism, to name but a few known to the peoples of the ever-changing borderlands, a place where old empires come to die beneath the endless tides of long wars and bleak harvests.

In this world, El-Enlil, the soul of man is laid bare, in all of its terrible wickedness and all its righteous passion. When humanity is truly a people cursed, afflicted with consuming destructive impulse only restrained by devotion to alien gods, what recourse is there but to charge ahead? To pick up the sword or the sigil or the word and strive for greatness, or become but another forgotten soul in a realm which ever seems to change, yet truly has never broken the cycles that constrain it. Here, in a land between lands, is a place where destinies can be made or broken through skill and chance, through cunning and bravery. So will you seek glory? Power? Respite? Or will you simply be a pawn to those who do?

We have fallen from grace, and little hope remains.

Yet still, we struggle on.

===========================================================================
What is Fall From Grace?

Fall From Grace is a dark gothic horror fantasy where mankind seeks to escape the sins inherent to its nature by turning to the worship of alien gods with unknowable agendas. Sorcery, knights, and strange monsters stalk the land while peasants eke out a living below the rulership of aristocratic warlords which range from the noble benefactor to brutal tyrants. Inhuman civilizations make both war and trade and the further one strays from the lands of civilization the greater the terrors and wonders they will stumble upon. It may seem like somewhat conventional fantasy on the surface, but the deeper you probe into its mysteries the stranger the answers you may find, if indeed any explanation is given at all. Of course, if you're not a degenerate sellsword vagabond going about plumbing said depths, you may be the ruler of a domain instead, in which case it may be the neighboring kingdom and their all-too-common ambition which presents the biggest threat. Fall From Grace aims to provide an experience that ranges from the nearly mundane to the horrific and surreal, consisting of a wide variety of cultures, races, and lands to explore that are all interlinked in the grand narrative tapestry that the world of El-Enlil provides.

DOWNLOAD: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14588

HOW TO INSTALL:
Just download it, place the folder somewhere, and play it. This mod comes with its own .exe and everything, you do not need to copy and paste, drag and drop, or otherwise move any files around beyond the initial step. It works exactly like installing and playing the vanilla game.

NOTE: Vampires seem available as adventurers in adventure mode but its just for allowing players to play a Dhampir sub-caste. If you want to be a vampire start as a human and find the appropriate slab or drink the blood of one.
===========================================================================
Change Log


2.53:
-Change to maps to make them more of a single big landmass with notable biomes instead of a messy patchwork (hopefully)
-Fix to positions, when you start a fort you should automatically have access to a knight or knight-equivalent for your civ. However, succession is still determined by heir. Make sure you have a replacement before your knight gets killed in battle.

2.52 Changes:
-Fix to Zawian civ positions

2.51 Changes:
-Changes to maps, they should have a better "look" to them but this is still a work in progress.
-Some more man-creature types.
-Various bugfixes.


2.5 Changes:

-Races refurbished. The issue with nomenclature in DF modding is that unless the whole setting is a monoculture you will be dealing with multiple cultures with their own languages and inspirations. Taking a race and giving it very specific terminology limits it to that particular niche. As a result, I've been working to make player-end terminology as descriptor-oriented and culture-agnostic as possible. For example, cynocephali are now "man-wolves". Presumably, every culture has their own word for the things. It isn't perfect but essentially there are workable categories now which I can fill out as the mod continues to develop. The bay12 race section will explain what all the new stuff is.
-Armor reshuffled a bit. Cuirasses won't come with pauldrons and such, arm armor is now handled entirely by arm equipment. So you'll be equipping things like a pauldroned vambraced miton. No customization is lost but it should require less chest variations. There's also a greater variety of helmets.
-Soldiers of a civ will now always wear both a cuirass AND mail/gambeson underneath, as opposed to previously when they wouldn't. Mercenaries will always be one or the other though.
-Additional sorcerous shenanigans for you to encounter. Vampires are back along with their undead armies, and a new form of necromancer faction has formed as a horde of flesh-eating giants so have fun with those.


2.41 Changes:
-Fix to cambion civ, they will now invade in worldgen
-Proper angels added to church civ
-Golems re-added to temple civ
-Some other small fixes


2.4 Changes:

-I have redone how armor and weapons work, they should be both more coherent and more varied now.
-I have done my best to remove all new-world plants and animals and fill in the gaps with new old-world animals for that true medieval feel.
-I have added over 100 new colors and replaced all the normal colors with these colors.
-Lore heavily reworked and expanded to be better.
-Magic reworked, what powers you get are tied to spheres but there's a lot of them.
Disclaimer: This is basically a bugtesting version because I have changed SO MUCH under the hood and cleaned stuff up. I would basically consider this version 1.0 of version 2.0 if you get me. If I didn't upload this now I'd spend forever tweaking it so I am putting this out here now. This version is the solid foundation from which I will add a ton of cool stuff.

2.31 Changes:
-Some additional creatures added in, secular necromancers get giant flesh constructs, the church gets angelic flesh constructs
-Arms and armor shuffled around to be more consistent
-Languages tweaked to be more unique


2.3 Changes:
-Many small errors fixed
-The issue of saving taking a really long time is PROBABLY solved. XML files shouldn't be bigger than 3 gigabytes on average now when you generate a large world, which is still a lot but should at least be manageable now until I find a way to make it better
-No more freezing during worldgen
-Monsters altered across the board. There should be much more variety within certain individual strains, some such as ogres have gotten their own civilizations or will join existing ones. Dragons especially will have a lot of detail across individuals.
-Big changes to clothing, everything is now more description-based and should bring to mind images of shapes rather than historical terminology. Each culture will have its own unique fashions and appearance within the limitations of its broader culture.
-So humans. I really thought separating them into different "species" divided by culture was a good idea since it allowed for region-specific interactions and allowed more lore to be explored in the vanilla game, but in the end the inability of these different human groups to breed has caused more problems than it solved. Humans are back to being one singular species, but the cultures previously described still exist, with their descriptions available on the bay12 page.
-A bit of a bold choice but I feel that, looking back, the world is just slightly too much of an overt ripoff of real world geography for my liking. Occidental Yria, the main region where the game takes place, has been shifted to the southern half of the equator. So, the north is hot, the south is cold. These regions are referred to as the Septentrion and the Nadir, respectively.


2.21 Changes:
-Some small issues I missed earlier whoops

2.2 Changes:
-I accidentally made cambions not wear clothing so this is a quick fix to that
-Some civs use firelances now, they're like handgonnes but shoot metal filaments that do slashing damage. They should let out a gout of fire when they do it but the game won't let me do that so just pretend

2.1 Changes:
-mummies will now be aggressive
-tomb builder civ is once more playable


2.0 Changes:
-Big but subtle overhaul to the setting. Lore changed to be less silly and more serious, some things removed and replaced, other things added, other other things tweaked. Overall this could be considered a sort of great restructuring that will make further changes much easier to implement now that the foundation is totally solidified. More will come but right now it should be a playable and enjoyable experience.
-Demonic invasion system implemented, certain nations should be attacked by demons and taken over by them in rare events, like in vanilla. Demons are also now entirely custom creations.
-The magic system of Broken Chain, my occult dieselpunk mod, has been ported to Fall From Grace, with some tweaks added. Broken Chain as it currently exists is simply too similar to Fall From Grace to really exist as a standalone mod, so all the cool magic stuff in it will be ported to Fall From Grace, and Broken Chain will be overhauled yet again into something that can reliably stand out from Fall From Grace without overlapping aesthetically and thematically with it.


1.75:
-Fauna overhauled. Savage tropical and temperate areas are now populated by prehistoric fauna ranging from mammals to dinosaurs. However, all environments in cold or oceanic regions can host prehistoric fauna, being untamed and savage as they are.
-Wights and Embalmed (mummies) added as specialized undead. The Embalmed should also take over certain southern nations which build tombs. Not violently, but as benign undead Padishahs of the ancient civilization. Wights are less benevolent, and are grudge-bearing undead with an inherent predisposition to cruelty, which they feed on.
-Good biomes overhauled. As everyone knows, space is filled with currents carrying spores of life. These spores land on both planets and other stellar bodies, but the atmosphere burns most of them up, otherwise the world would be overrun with alien life. However, El-Enlil's moon has a special relationship with the planet, and some areas achieve a form of symbiosis between the native ecosystem and the quasi-alien lunar life that has grown to inhabit the region. Who knows, maybe in the future aetherships will be common enough for regular trade between the two realms.

1.72 changes:
-emergency fix for a raw duplication

1.71 Changes:
-Many small fixes
-Some new creatures added
-New "race" added, ghouls. Previously an undead template, they are now their own unique undead creature, and are created when a human survives a necrotic bite from an elder ghoul, formed by curses, or the terrifying Grigori. They're stronger than vampires, but have less magical power.


1.7 Changes:
-Updated to latest version.


1.68 Changes:
-A bunch of little fixes
-Voidborn have inbred slave-castes (life on a generation ship does things to people)
-Human civs will now send caravans every season but winter to make getting steel easier.

1.67 Changes:
-Some new monsters added
-Some bugfixes
-Northern armor overhauled, and coifs added. Northern civs are meant to be inspired by the 1200s, so hopefully that works out.
-Another southern civilization added. There is now a divide between the henotheistic caliphates of the Great God of Fire and the polytheistic old shahdoms.
-A new race added, the voidborn. They're frail, intelligent humanoids from the Outer Dark who live in cloistered settlements.
-Northern, Southern, Imperial, and Diaspora human civilizations are now playable in fortress mode. I want to keep non-humans unplayable in fortress mode to keep them mysterious and exotic. Making contact with them either as a hostile force or friendly liaison should be an exciting and unpredictable occasion.


1.66 Changes:
-I finally broke and changed ALL the equipment names so they function right in fort mode. Let me know if something has gone terribly wrong.
-Some cool bugs added. Like, the insect kind.

1.65 Changes:
-Quick fix to some bugs
-Golems overhauled
-Automatons added

1.6 Changes:
-Magic users reworked. There are now generic "practitioners" which can learn a wide variety of disciplines. I will add more in future updates as I think of them.
-A new minor faction of humans added. These humans are refugees from a continent to the distant east, driven out of their homes by an oppressive, sprawling empire and arriving on the southernmost portions of the northwest continents. It is said that there are strange and unknown Great Gods in their homeland, but until the westerners find a way to cross the open ocean without being taken by the horrors of the sea these refugees are the only proof such a place exists. They wear strange armor and use strange weapons, and fight alongside their massive insectoid war beasts.
-Dinosaurs reworked, there are now more of them and the names are changed.
-Ghosts added to evil areas. They are easily dispersed when struck but hard to hit and can debuff you with status effects. Some types of ghost are more dangerous than others. As a general rule, you don't want to run into one alone.
-I have decided that there needs to be more monstrous enemy races to threaten civilization, especially with how the new alliance mechanics work. With that in mind, I introduce four invader races; The Excarnate, heretical skeleton crusaders who want to purge the living in the name of holy undeath (schismed from the Sanctified), the Plagued, insane humans carrying a contagious disease, Troll-Men, a troll variant with something approaching intelligent thought, and Blemmyes, failed experiments in creating homunculi soldiers. All are hostile.
-Cthonic monsters used by civilizations will now be special slave variants instead of the sort found in their native habitat. A bit weaker with a better ratio of creatures.
-Relics added. Pre-Deluge technology was vastly more advanced than what exists today, and what examples remain are jealously guarded. The remnants of the Land Of Many Angles, the Roaming Empire, and the First Civilization all make use of melee, ranged, and vehicular relics of immense combat potential, the latter of which can be so powerful that the strongest of knights cannot dent them. Only massed fire from ranks of handgonnes or the cannons of a normal war machine can hope to bring such ancient terrors to heel.
-I really dislike giving the player the ability to do things NPCs can't, but I really don't have a choice here. The player can now make lead ammunition for guns using the smelter. Unfortunately, NPC civs will not do this for a bunch of complicated reasons. But I really want lead ammunition for your gunners, so here we are.
-I switched the skills for handgunner and bowman. Not much of a change, but now hunters will spawn with bows and crossbows instead of handguns, and that sort of detail is important.


1.58 Changes:
-Quick fix to necromancers not having emotions
-Nosferatu will now infect victims with the Strigoi strain of vampirism instead of making them ghouls.

1.57 Changes:
-Some nations with a strong connection to pre-deluge civilization will use advanced firearms like muskets and blunderbusses.
-Orichalum and Black Iron temporarily removed due to bugs regarding material usage. Everyone is back to using steel for now.
-Landships overhauled. There are now four different styles of vehicle, two land-types and two air-types. In addition, land-types will have a mobile workshop variant that can "revive" and repair downed vehicles adjacent to it.
-Some more new armor pieces added

1.55 Changes:
So I found a CTD bug mid-update so now I'm rushing this out, more content to come but your game won't crash no more hopefully.
-Some new armor pieces added
-Languages overhauled to give them a more defined aesthetic and move away from historical cultures in favor of something more unique. Different civilizations can share a language according to their historical lineage and the ancient civilizations they descended from.
-New wizard type added, the Druid. They're like werewolves, only they turn into bears and deliberately chose the life of living in a cave and terrorizing you instead of having it forced on them. They won't infect you but oh man are they big.
-Trolls added to various biomes.

1.5 Changes:

-Gunners and bowmen get cool hats now (in civilized nations at least)
-A batch of true Chthonic entities added to the underworld
-Rolled back the iron/steel stuff because it just seemed to weird and arbitrary. Instead of just giving barbarian northerners steel though, they now use a substance called black iron. It's thick, crude, and imbued with shamanic runes to give it the strength of steel. So same thing, different aesthetic.
-Slavic-style humans added, the Severa. They split from the wolfmen before they became the wolfmen, and defend their homeland from bestial aggression.
-Creatures from the Outer Dark revamped, replacing vanilla creatures that had previously been placeholders. They should be more space-y now.
-Giant Snails added as per medieval tapestries
-Vampires reworked. There are now Nosferatu acting as conventional civilization-infiltrating vampires, and actual vampires existing as tower-dwelling necromancer-types with special undead minions. In addition, if two vampires procreate, they produce a Dhampir, an eerie being with strange powers but without the bloodthirst of its parents.
-New curse added, ogre transformation. Functions as a vampire or werebeast curse, but you turn into an ugly, perpetually insatiable elephant-sized humanoid. They can exist in society but tend to cause upheaval and trouble wherever they go. They can also reproduce.
-The Sanctified changed to better fit their theme as religious undead. The majority of the mortal population are now termed pariahs on account of basically being lepers, with a small percentage of them being born stillborn and used as seeds to create different types of undead based on modifications of pre-existing rituals. So instead of holy undead all basically being the same, they will now have a greater variety of form and bear the traits of the undead they were intended to mimic. They're like bootleg versions of the original along with some universal modifications.
-This change is a bit crazy but bear with me. I've changed the way skills work to reduce them greatly. Instead of all the different weapon skills, there is now the one-hander weapon for small weapons, the two-hander weapon for large melee weapons, the sidearm user skill for daggers, with skirmisher/handgunner/bowman remaining unchanged. This is because you can't use two-handed weapons with shields effectively, and the game does not let NPCs not carry shields if they are of a particular melee skill. Basically if a hammer user carries a maul, he's automatically nerfed from using it one-handed. The exception to this is the Pikeman skill, which does not use a shield. I could just fold two-handed weapons into the pikeman skill, but that would be lopsided as one-handed weapons would require a ton of different skills while a two-hander expert could pick up a greatsword as easily as a greataxe. So, my compromise is the situation explained above.
-Overhauled weapons entirely, there's now a fair amount of variants for each type of weapon, tilted in favor of blunt weapons like maces and hammers because you need those to fight dudes in plate armor.
-Doppelhaken name changed to 'wall-gonne' so its more universal
-A new biome added, the Forest of Night. Its at the bottom of the cave layers and is where vampires get their powers from. It is basically a physical manifestation of nightmare and predation.


1.4 Changes:

-Some nations make pig iron directly from ores. It's advanced metallurgy don't think about it. Anyway this also means that other civs will make weapons/armor/ammo from normal iron to emphasize their primitive nature while also ensuring civilized nations don't wear an iron/steel patchwork mess of armor, which they shouldn't be doing in the current era.
-New hostile race, Hellions. These demonic cave-dwelling imps boil forth from the caverns where their chthonic masters dwell, bringing chaos behind them.
-Some updates to vehicles. The current type of landcraft will now be called "ironclads" on account of having metal plating. "landcrafts" will be the term given to non-armored wooden vessels used by some other nations. They use ballistas as opposed to cannons like what ironclads do.
-Two new types of ranged weapons, slurbows and prodds. Slurbows are crossbows with closed barrels, and prodds are a type of crossbow that fires pellets, or in this case the round shot used by handgonnes.
-Throwing weapons reworked. Instead of a generic "throwing gauntlet" to trick the game into making soldiers with throwing weapons, there are now types of throwing weapons as ammo and a "last xyz" as the thing that "throws" them. So if a soldier has a "last throwing spear" weapon, he'll carry throwing spears as ammo. This lets them have a decent weapon to defend themselves with after they run out of ammunition and charge into melee. A guy with throwing axes just becomes an axeman once he throws them all, for example.
-Just a ton of new melee weapons in general. Wanted to give nations more variety.
-Flying carpets now come in small, moderate, and large varieties.
-Holy Weapons reworked
-New caste added to the Saints, the Faithful. The Faithful are mortal, almost human beings touched by necromancy. They age and die like anyone else, but the best of them have the opportunity to become Saints if they desire immortality on earth as well as the heavens (works as necromancy). This was added to ground the Saints a bit more as a civilization, giving the Saints themselves (who are now about 1/4th of the population compared to their mortal charges) a more distinct role as protectors and servants of the mortal citizenry if they haven't decided to go off on adventures. The race as a whole is now referred to as the Sanctified rather than Saints, as well. My tests have shown that this shouldn't cause you to CTD when you look at them but they still might haha, so tell me if they do that.
-Added some more underground friends


1.35 Changes:
-HUGE overhaul to clothing and armor. There should now be a wide variety of outfits and military uniforms to choose from, with each civilization having its own distinct and unique look.
-New human culture, the Jern. A simple northern people regressed back to the iron age after the great deluge, the Jern are a hardy and reliable group that often feud with the wolfmen who share their territory.

1.3 Changes:
-Weapons swapped out because I've always used muskets when guns were needed and I want to try something new out. Civs will now use handgonnes of varying types. Handgonnes are the ancient predecessor to the musket and have all kinds of weird shapes I think are neat.
-Languages updated to be more closely based on real-world ones for fun thematic stuff.
-Cool types of magic added. Demonologist, Diviner, Thaumaturge, Lineage Channeler, and Alchemist.
-New race added, the Ghuls. Carnivorous ogres descended from tribes who rejected the teachings of the Fire God, these surprisingly human cave-dwellers are highly-valued mercenaries and brothers-in-arms in the eternal wars of the post-deluge world.

1.2 Changes:
-Updated to latest version

1.1 Changes:
-Random monsters from medieval tapestries added. I'll probably be adding more of these in bits and pieces as I add other new content.
-Armor expanded and fleshed out, should get more cool designs.
-New human faction added, city-states guarded by knights in various types of late medieval armor.
-Caverns expanded, they are now more fleshed out. Mostly sunken and filled with horrific water monsters. The land is relatively safe though. Unless you run into the natives.
-New race added, Cyclopes. The Cyclopes are another remnant of Antiquity, like the Satyrs, but are godless and prideful. perhaps that is why they are reduced to a paltry few mountain fortresses.

1.0 Changes:
-Fall From Grace released

[squamous]

LORE

Civilizations of Pelestat:

Pelestat is a land far from the heart of civilization, such as it is in these dark times. Isolated from the rest of the known world by haunted wilds and untamed seas, it serves as a microcosm of El-Enlil's endlessly varied nations and cultures. Listed below are those who would call this land their own.

===========================================================================
Humans:

Humans are a diverse species found throughout the known world. Since the beginning of history, El-Enlil has been dominated by human interests. There have been setbacks, delays, collapses, even periods of total anarchy, but for the most part mankind remains dominant. Humans would tell you this is because they are the ones closest to the gods, and have the greatest divine spark within themselves. This may in fact be true. The means by which they acquired this aspect, however, are a thing less known, or spoken of. Suffice to say, all claim descendance from the Titans, the god-kings of the first era which carved civilization from pitiless nature, and since collapsed. Humanity is also divided into three broad tiers, each of which considering themselves to be the true humans, the others being aberrations. That said, through certain rites it is possible to change tiers, though these methods are often forbidden, even by those who have engaged in them themselves. There is good reason for this. For lying dormant within humanity is what religious authorities have termed Original Sin, a unique affliction to humans that manifests itself as the subtle urge to devour one's kindred. Indeed, the existence of the innate cannibalistic urge can be used as a litmus of what counts as "human". Original Sin may be kept in check by individuals, but on the scale of communities it requires tradition, faith, and order to sublimate, and places in which these things are lost will degenerate over generations to what can only be described as Hell on earth.

Firstmen: The oldest breed and the greatest in stature, they claim to be but one degree removed from the Titans of ancient days, hence their name. Reclusive and powerful in their ancient temple-complexes, they mostly stay out of the way of other races. However, humans and the like who have reached this level through gnostic arts are often the heads of powerful noble houses or even rule entire kingdoms.

Secondmen: Large and powerful but not to the extent of Firstmen, Secondmen are more active and intertwined with the affairs of the world. They are, compared to wizened Firstmen, more stereotyped as conquerors and tyrants, though perhaps this is simply because lower humans are more familiar with them. Certainly, every human nation covets secondmen as soldiers due to their strength. Perhaps their fearsome reputation is not unwarranted.

Thirdmen: Thirdmen are the most common race of human, three degrees removed from the Titans. They consider themselves the most successful breed due to their numbers, with their greater kin relics of a bygone age. Perhaps because of the dilution inherent to their genes, they are also most prone to chimerism and mutation, and it is said many races have come about via the intermingling of human blood with inhuman things, or through submission to an alien power which shaped them to its will. That said, Original Sin is weakest among them, and perhaps it is this which will be their salvation.

Furthermore, Thirdmen have developed into a wide variety of cultures, some of which can be found here:

Vandels:

Vandels, Vandelmen, or Vandelers are humans claiming descent from the hero-king Vandel, a mighty leader from the First Dark Age following the end of Antiquity. Leading his people to freedom he carved out a great kingdom before his death, though since then his people have devolved into a patchwork quilt of feuding kingdoms. Centuries ago they were followers of the Ushian Church, but following the rise of the Multiplicity many have converted to that new and rising faith. Their kingdoms can generally be divided by the extent to which they practice cannibalism (see 'Titan Cults'). Some refuse to partake of that ancient rite, others only upon the foe slain in battle, while others have no restrictions at all. Vandel kingdoms are known for warring with themselves as much as outsiders, and mercenaries find ample work in their lands. The names of their lands typically contain the words "krei", "lant", "ria", and "cea".

The Vandel kingdoms may host Ushian monasteries, ancestor cults, and titan cults, but are dominated primarily by the Multiplicitist faith.

Zawians:

Zawians are a people native to the warm equatorial north, at the edge of the Known World. In the northern regions of Pelestat their people have carved out a sizeable chunk of territory in the name of their people and their god, the transcendent Diel and its nameless prophet. Zawians are reknowned for their unique landships, spindly things of countless moving parts which can traverse all manner of terrain with light-footed swiftness. They are also well-known for their pervasive slaving and universal revilement of cannibalistic practices, viewing the cultures that partake as borderline subhuman. They favor mail armor reinforced with plates rather than a true full harness, though some of them make use of a curious manner of half-plate termed "mirror armor". Compared to the other peoples the Zawians are relatively peaceful, possessing luxuries and decadence foriegn to the cold south, though it is built on the crack of the whip. The names of their confederacies typically contain the words "beya", "abeya", and "niveh".

Zawians pay homage to the Diel first and foremost, but are known for their successful Planetary Cults as well.

Dulvish:

The Dulvish are widely regarded as brutes and near-barbarians, found at the border of the nigh-inhospitable tundra where the Vandels struggle to colonize. Their rough living breeds skilled warriors, and despite their backwards ways the barbaric Dulvish are taken quite seriously in war. They are also open worshippers of the Titans, with all manner of great men more welcome among the Dulvish than anywhere else. Among them, strength is respected above all, and few are the Dulvish who have not tasted the flesh of men. The other peoples regard them as crude and uncultured and frequently come into conflict with them, often due to Dulvish coveteousness of northern farmland. That said, half of their violence is directed against the yet-more-savage Cynocephali which dwell further into the tundra, and indeed they serve as a vital bulwark against inhuman aggression from those servants of paganry. The names of their lands typically contain the words "ran", "kon", "dom", and "lund".

While the Dulvish are primarily Titan-worshippers, they acknowledge their ancestors in ritual. There are even some pagans among them who pray to the Green Gods, either in true reverence or simply out of hope the things will leave them be.

Haimites:

Though their dominance has long ended, the Haimites are afforded respect for their legacy of being one of if not the first true civilizations of mankind which did not bow to the rule of Titans, Haim-Haneh, due to their allegiance to the oldest of the Great Gods, Metan. During Antiquity they were the great power of the north, warring with southern Demnysia until its consortion with fell Chthon led to its collapse, and an exhausted Haim-Haneh fractured with it. The Haimites were scattered to the winds, carving out fortified temple cities across the land and plumbing the depths of the Dark Continents to find a place to call their own. Haimites are a mysterious lot in the eyes of outsiders, their practice of binding demons marking them as sinister, though in truth they are most careful to ensure they do not fall as their once-rivals did. With their armies of bound demon constructs they can afford to dwell even in the most dangerous lands, but there are always whispered rumors of temples which went too far, and allowed dread Chthon to gain purchase in the surface world. Their countries always contain their word for temple, "haim", in honor of their first city.

The Haimites are composed almost entirely of adherents to Metan, though there are some prominent Gnostics among them that pay homage to no deity at all.


Nedesians:

Nedesians are a seafaring people found in coasts all over the new world. Their maritime influence cannot be understated, though these days the Nedesians of Pelestat have found themselves cut off from their kin beyond the region. They value trade and knowledge above all, and their greatest cities are dens of cutthroat intrigue. Nedesian armor is on par with Vandel make but of a different design, making use of multiple segments bolted together in a style similar to laminar armor, but much more sophisticated. This 'anima' style armor is greatly associated with Nedesians as a result. Furthermore, their are known for their prowess in clockworking. While mainsprings are essential to move vehicles in the modern era, the Nedesians have gone even further, and it is whispered that their ancestors are responsible for the living dolls of brass and porcelain which wander Pelestat's interior. Their nations typically contain the words "raine", "lio", "mea", or "rio".

The Nedesians are almost entirely composed of Multiplicitist believers, though esoteric mystery cults are not uncommon.

Khysians:

Far to the north, beyond even Zawia, there is a seemingly endless wall. A mighty plateau which has for the most part kept the other half of El-Enlil, the Antipodal World, from truly making contact with the Known World. There are many strange things over there, it is said. Temples made of jade, and dragons which dispense wisdom rather than terror. A living Titan, ruling as a mighty emperor from heaven. Most people just know about the horde. Khysians live on the plateu itself, where most struggle to breath due to its height. Riding great yaks and armored in thick lamellar, they periodically charge down to menace the known world. Sometimes they are driven back. Sometimes they form a short-lived but expansive empire. Sometimes pockets of them carve out little kingdoms that last far longer than one would think. Khysians of Pelestat are of the latter group. A deeply foreign people, they have nonetheless become accepted as a part of life by the locals. Their lands always bear the word "lam".

The Khysians are the only culture in Pelestat to elevate their ancestors as the prime religion of their people, excluding all others due to their alien nature.


Lepers:

The leper-kingdoms of the Ushian faith are famous throughout the known world. Entire cities of dying mortals and risen dead united in worship of the Most Holy and its divine savior. Surgeon-priests sculpting cadavers into perfect angelic visages to properly represent the will of the church. And knights which neither breathe nor tire as they hunt down those who would threaten mankind. Though considered antiquated and orthodox in the days of the Multiplicity the leper-churches still cling to relevancy through their mastery of the necromantic arts, sacrificing their own bodies to wither and decay as they continue to pursue the ideals instilled in them by their Savior. Though whether it is even possible or simply madness is another matter entirely.

Lepers are almost universally devoted to the Most Holy, eschewing other faiths.
===========================================================================
Human of Marked Lineages:

To be "Marked" in some way, in the meaning of the known world, is to be claimed by a power which has changed what you are in exchange for promises or offerings made, either by yourself or your ancestors, or a power which has simply forced itself upon your bloodline for its own ends. These are humans who, due to the volatile nature of their spiritual essence, have been changed not to the degree they are no longer human in spirit, but are marked in body by the thing which has claimed them.

Death-Marked: The Death-Marked are the hereditary lepers of the Ushian faith. Necromancy is not without its costs and risks, and for all the utopia it promises sacrifices must be made to reach it. For this, the first families which pledged worship to the Most Holy took the burden of sorcery upon their bodies, letting it fester and rot them in exchange for protection from other spiritual beings and power over life and death. As such, the Death-Marked have an intuitive sense of life, death, and what is between that allows them to navigate the difficulties of necromancy with relative ease, though they are not entirely safe, nor trustworthy. Some consider their existence an irony. The undead of their people are made safe from rot through freshness of flesh or its excarnated absence, yet they cannot prevent the decay of their own bodies.

Demon-Marked: Devilry abounds in the known world, unleashed by the Perverse and Unnamed Empire which in its arrogance conjured the formless spirits of the underworld to give counsel and in doing so destroyed all that they had wrought, and even today the underworld's forces periodically wage war upon the surface. As such, the known world hosts a large population of Demon-Marked, those who bear the legacy of demonic stain through unspeakable acts. As with demons, they exhibit chimerism and come in many forms with varying degrees of deviation. Some might consider them a breed of man-creature due to their beastly additions, but this would be incorrect, as their mutations are unstable and only tangentially related to natural creatures, and their forms come from no interaction with creatures of the earthly realm.

Fair-Marked: In the vacuum left by the absence of the Green Gods, other things have taken root in the wild and untamed places of the world closest to man. These boundary-spaces are the domain of the Fair, a collection of unearthly spirits of capricious humor. Despite their dwelling in the wild they are not of it, but rather slip through like ghosts. Their ways are strange, perhaps even unpredictable, but they offer a curious sort of power to those who ask it, in exchange for bearing their mark. Many who dwell in harsher lands, be it above or below the earth, accept the offer of the Fair.

Blood-Marked: The drinking of blood is not dissimilar to the consumption of flesh, but to do so specifically, draining men dry to partake of their vital fluids, has in history created a terrible mutation among those who would turn from traditional cannibalism in favor of hemophagy. This heresy sees the imbiber develop ever more fearsome traits to better prey on his fellow men, not growing just in size but in predatory mien, given the ability to turn the dying and recently-dead into blood-hungry ghouls under their own command, or afflict them with a lesser version of their own urges, turning them into terrors within their unsuspecting communities. Men marked by blood-thirst are thus persecuted across the known world for the danger they pose to mankind.

===========================================================================



Man-Creatures:

None can truly say from whence man-creatures came, though common reasons given are profane and perverse acts, the changing of beasts which ate the flesh of men, and the changing of men into the aspects of beasts. Regardless, they seem found throughout the known world. However, not every beast has its mannish cousin. Whatever factors lead to the formation of man-creatures seem, at least, to be subject to the whims of fate. Collectively they can be considered a kind of Half-Men, but are so pervasive and diverse they are considered their own breed of being.

Man-Wolves The most well-known and one of the most feared man-creatures, man-hounds are ferocious pagans which live in the cold south, worshipping the ancient gods of nature which were driven from the known world at the beginning of history. Their stories claim they were once men who fled persecution, becoming beasts through a pact with the Green Gods, but others decry this as heresy, calling them wolves in the guise of men. Regardless, they are at odds with the lands of humanity, and frequently make war with their human neighbors.

Man-Serpents: Perhaps most ancient of man-creatures, man-serpents have been featured in many legends, and for a time even rivaled the power of humans during the First Age. Most unsettling was their preference for human flesh, raising human cattle for consumption and hunting them for sport. However, their strength was eventually broken and their people humbled, and now they are reclusive creatures dwelling in the jungles of the tropical north. They seem to keep to themselves, but few can truly know what they are scheming. Also notable is the configuration of their human features, an illusory mask by which they may mimic human shape from a distance while concealing their true serpentine guise.

Man-Fishes: Creatures of the coast, man-fishes appeared at some point in human history, but none can point to exactly when. Perhaps their first appearance was lost to time. Perhaps it was erased by design. Certainly, the man-fishes are a reclusive and esoteric lot, worshipping the untamed gods of the deep sea, creatures of nature which even the Titans could not hunt and devour. They are valued as sailors even as they are distrusted for their alien gods.

Man-Tygers: Creatures of the south, they have featured heavily in legends both as foes to slay and fearsome mentors for those who would seek their wisdom. They are not unlike the common cat in their attitudes, lazy and playful with a disturbingly low threshold for violence when it suits them. While they can form close bonds with individual humans, they have no compunctions against clipping the spine of a nuisance if they feel they can get away with it.

Man-Toads: Of simple minds and simple lives, man-toads have not progressed from primitive swamp dwellers since their presence was recorded, and do not seem particularly inclined to do so in the future. That said, some communities of them do form within the settlements of other peoples, taking advantage of the comforts offered in exchange for the extra hands they provide. Despite humanity's paranoia of non-human creatures, man-toads tend to slip under their concerns, their simple lives leaving little for humans to take issue with.

===========================================================================

Homunculi:

Homunculi are beings given life from inanimate materials, and more specifically a human form and mind. These creatures have been created from all manner of things, through all manner of methods, by cultures across the known world. Unlike man-creatures, which arise seemingly at random or through acts of chimeric sorcery, homunculi are seen as the product of a more measured, scholarly process and considered more trustworthy among the learned, though peasants are just as like to drive them off with torches and pitchforks if found unattended.

Clay Homunculus: The first artificial men ever created, clay homunculi are said to have been key in Haim-Haneh's legendary war against the Titans. These days they are put to more mundane purposes, laboring under the command of Haimite priests for the good of their many temples. They have no societies of their own and exist purely as an extension of Haimite will.

Flesh Homunculus: Originally created by the Ushian Church, flesh homunculi are created from the assembled parts of dead humans. Church-made homunculi are famous, or infamous, for having been sculpted to resemble the angels of their scripture, though these days most flesh homunculi are made without such aesthetic concerns in mind, for the secrets of creating them have long been pilfered by common sorcerers and flesh homunculi have proliferated across the known world ever since, with many banding together in the form of mercenary companies and independent townships.

Clockwork Homunculus: The remnants of the prior age before the latest Anthropophagy, they represent a level of mechanical ingenuity which only the masters of the modern era can hope to replicate. Though made of strong metals, they are expensive to create and repair, limiting their numbers

[squamous]

Technology:

Metalworking:

Due to advances in metalworking, steel is the most commonly used metal for arms and armor, with other metals going unused due to their weaker strength.

Armor:

Most human nations make use of full plate armor, with other civilizations such as the pagans using chainmail and brigandines. Servants of the fire god wear lamellar or mail-and-plate armor rather than full plate. The remnants of Haim-Haneh, the first civilization, make use of magical warding discs, items about the size of a dinner plate and worn on the chest. These warding discs absorb the energy of blows but are weaker towards the extremities. A good rule of thumb is that the hands, feet, and head are vulnerable while the arms, torso, and legs are protected.

Full plate armor is a complex set of items. For full protection you will need:

-Helm: replaces headwear
-Visor: replaces facewear
-Cuirass: varies in strength depending on if it is pauldroned, skirted, tasseted, and so on. Comes in various styles according to culture.
-Plate leggings: Armor that protects the legs, going over the pants.
-Mitons/Gauntlets: includes vambraces, and goes over the arms of the wearer.
-Sabatons: Armor that protects the feet of the wearer. Goes over shoes.



Note that due to the ubiquitousness of steel and advanced metalworking, everyone is on the same level when it comes to what technologies are used to make armor. Enemies you fight will often wear full plate that makes them all but immune to slashing attacks. As such, you should make sure your soldiers are equipped with blunt weapons that can damage an enemy through his armor if you attempt to combat invading knights.

That said, the far north and south make use of other types of armor for various reasons. The north uses chain and scale mail along with basic helmets, while the south uses loose mail-and-plate or lamellar tunics that emphasis mobility and heat dissipation.

Handgonnes:

Handgonnes are primitive firearms mass-produced by nearly all nations to some degree. Ranging from gun barrels on poles to musket-like arquebuses to even small hand-held cannons, these clunky but dangerous gunpowder weapons are a powerful weapon in any nation's arsenal. Handgonnes use the handgunner skill. Some nations retain the ability to produce advanced firearms from before the deluge, such as muskets, blunderbusses, and carbines. Rarer still are powerful pneumatic handguns with an even more powerful explosive force behind them. There are multiple types available with different ammunition.


Weapons:

Melee weapons of all sorts are naturally ubiquitous. Due to the equally ubiquitous nature of plate armor and steelworking, most soldiers prefer weapons that rely on blunt or puncturing damage to bust through an enemy's defense or break the bones behind it. Slashing weapons like swords are reserved for beasts or used by the most skilled of fighters. Using the right weapon for the right enemy is absolutely vital.

=====================================================================

[squamous]

Magic:

The gods are, of course, divine. With thought alone they shape the world to their will. No matter their popularity among the people, no matter how new or old their faith, that is the essence of a deity. Among the lay people, this is simply how things are, with little thought given to the how and why. Among the learned both secular and not, the term for this divine power is Numen, as named by those most terrible and awesome sorcerers of fallen Demnysia. All living things possess at least the barest spark of it, though it is widely believed in some manner or another that humans possess the most of any mortal people. But the ability to effortlessly shape the world to their own will is impossible for mankind or the other mortals of this world. But to work miracles, or sorcery, is not. There are two broad methods of doing so.

Numen:

Man cannot actualize his will alone. To work the magic of Numen is to call upon the favor of the divine. Priests, saints, or simply the devout, who foster a relationship with their patron deity, may ask to be granted a portion of Numen by which they may work the will of the heavens. And sometimes, the divine seems to answer. With but a thought, miraculous works have risen, and just retribution has fallen upon the wicked. Though in truth, not all gods are arrayed in favor of man, and those placed against human civilization are just as eager to share Numen among their wicked followers as the gods of men are to theirs. To be a vessel for Numinous miracles is to have who you are changed to suit your divine master, to submit to them totally in exchange for the power that is granted. For some this change is little, for some it may strip away all they are. Does one mold themselves to please their god, or does the god sculpt them for its own end? Does the submission to divine will free man from the temptation of misuse, or do the gods seek to keep man tamed and and reliant on their borrowed power? Such things are endlessly debated among the learned of all allegiances.

Gnosis:

The Numinous art is will made manifest, with no separation between thought and result. The Gnosis is far from this ideal. Those who pursue the Mysteries seek to work sorcery not as a divine conduit but through themselves alone, with what Numen flickers in their own being. To do this, one needs intermediaries. Hands to chant, a tongue to speak, a focus to raise, a ritual to follow, ingredients to gather, offerings to make. One, some, or all of these may be required for Gnostic arts, which are so varied and multitudinous as to be beyond individual classification, to the point the line becomes blurred between secret knowleges mundane and arcane. Always lagging behind the powerful miracles of the Numen yet ever hungry for knowledge and infinitely versatile. Indeed, it is not unheard of for the Gnostic schools to create through their arts a mimicry of a miracle through enough study, and for this they are distrusted by many a church, for they make material what is holy, debase what is sacred in their pursuit of knowledge. Some things are best left as divine mysteries, they say, lest the spread of their knowledge lead to terrible misuse. And it may well be they are correct, for some of the most terrible atrocities of the sorcerous kind have been committed by those who studied the miracles of the divine and perverted them to their own ends. Still, the Gnosis is widely dispersed across the known world, and of such great use that even the faiths themselves must integrate some aspects of them into their own organizations. True faith is not so reliably taught, after all.

Noesis:

Where Numen is Miracle and Gnosis is Sorcery, the Noetic is what skirts the line between the arcane and mundane. The impossible clockwork wonders of the prior age and the grim surgical creations of the Ushian Church and heretical necromancer fall under this category. Alchemy, surgery, engineering, and other such things, tinged with the workings of the occult, is what constitutes Noetics, though in truth this field is in debate. Many consider Noetics to be little more than sorcerers who seek to gain more legitimacy by claiming their work to be that of the learned scholar rather than a maddened apostate who chases after divine mysteries, but even so they make use of its products anyway, as the results speak for themselves.

[squamous]

Religion in the Known World:

Religion in the Known World:

Perhaps more than any other institution it is faith which has dominated the minds of men in the known world. It was after all faith which saw the earliest of humanity's ancestors bow to the Pagan Gods, and during the Age of Titans it was Metan who taught sorcery to Its first priests, ending the domain of the cannibal cities. It was the Most Holy who drew mankind from the darkness of Antiquity's end through the ceaseless labor of its church, and it is the transcendent Diel who even now unites the hearts and minds of our neighbors to the north in the Second Covenant. Even here, the rising Multiplicity shines like a star among those who flock to its radiance, promising rebirth and unity for a shattered mankind. Moreso than any fleeting empire, it is the faiths which endure and last through humanity's history. Written here are those most familiar to the peoples of the known world.

It should be noted these are written from a very knowledgeable perspective. The average inhabitant of the world possesses a far less complete and nuanced view of religion on average.





The Great Faiths:

It is unknown when exactly the first of the Great Gods came upon the earth, but all agree it was after man committed the Primordial Sin, and the cities of humanity became charnel houses of untold misery. One by one they flitted down from the Outer Dark with gospel and miracle, and brought their ways into the world. They are different from the petty gods and spirits of the earth, this is certain. They are impossible for humans to understand, yet humans are understood by them. They act always indirectly, through miracle or prophet, and are almost only seen in vision, save for the early days of their arrival, which is heralded by great portents and shakes the foundations of the era in which they appear. Each promises an idea of Heaven, of paradise, that can be attained by following their scripture.

And each, without fail, if their ways are followed, create lasting societies that do not fall to the cannibalistic anarchy which is the default state of human existence. Primordial Sin is not wholly annihilated, it cannot be, but it is so lessened that so long as the people continue to believe, their land shall not be eaten from within, by their own hand. As countless peoples rise and fall, as grand empires fade into memory, the Great Faiths yet stand, immovable by time, guided only by their tireless quests for Heaven.

Perhaps in some distant future era, it will be reached.

But not this one.

The Temple of Metan and the Sages:

Of the Great Faiths of the known world, Metan is the oldest and most obscure. During the era of the Titans and their cannibal cities, mankind lay oppressed, herded like cattle and devoured by the hundreds to sate the appetites of their engorged masters. With few means to fight back in an era where physical strength dominated, life was bleak and hope all but quashed.

It was in this era that Metan appeared to a select few humans in dreams and waking visions. Speaking in symbolism and riddle, it slowly lead its first followers to decipher its meaning, and revelation after revelation would lead them to attain the first understanding of Gnosis, becoming the first sorcerers, the Sages. With his cunning and wisdom he plotted to overthrow the Titans and spread both the miracles of Metan and lay sorcery to his fellow men, and in this regard he succeeded, amassing a great following of magi.

Using their newfound power, they struck down and sealed away the Titans, leading men in a rebellion that saw the remaining Titans exiled to the far reaches of the earth, if they were not exterminated outright. Following this great war Metan's priests established the first true human realm in the known world, Haim-Haneh, and would lay down the laws and teachings which are followed to this day, though only in the cloistered temple-cities which remain of that mighty land.

The reason for Metan's obscurity in the modern era is due to its highly complex system of laws and taboos, which to many constitute a burden they would rather not bear. The Writ of Metan is often criticized for its seeming contradictions and nonsensical prohibitions, which are so numerous it would be exhaustive to make a list of. However, this is in truth the most important facet of Metan's faith, for breaking its law is as important as following it.

The Writ of Metan is in actuality a code meant to be challenged and broken. While it serves as a decent enough set of moral guidelines for the plebeians and laymen, written into its endless laws are deliberate loopholes and flaws which are meant to be understood and exploited, each one expanding like a fractal of knowledge which allows further secrets to be unveiled. At first they are simple things, but as one delves deeper into the Writ's myriad cracks the revelations grow greater and greater, with the reader finding ways to skirt not just the law of man, but natural law as well. Metan's Writ is, as they soon find, a guide as much as a code, one which teaches the user how they may align themselves with Metan's will to create wonders and shape reality.

The Temple of Metan values knowledge, law, and secrecy. Its priests are masters of law and are tasked with righteous judgement in both secular and religious cases. Furthermore, they are known for their prowess at binding demons in inescapable chains, forcing them to serve divine will rather than their own nefarious purposes. The will of Metan, it is said, is to elevate mankind into enlightened philosopher-kings, and while it is a harsh and stern teacher it is also a fair one. It has given mankind the tools needed to reach its perfected state, and it is up to mankind to learn to make use of them. It accepts use of the Gnosis more than any other faith, but its core is built on the use of Metan's Writ to decipher the true teachings of their god.

Of course, some might say that Metanism is simply a mask for Gnostic sorceries to set about their dark arts, and freely turn sorcery against the good and righteous under the pretension of faith. For this reason they are frequently distrusted, and perhaps rightly so. The Metanic emphasis on mystery does little to set such fears aside.

Metan is commonly depicted as a floating inverted pyramid, and a set of wheels within wheels. Its symbols are the triangle, multiple triangles arranged into a hexagon, or a spoked wheel. The Sages are depicted as wizened old men and women atop flying carpets. The faith values discipline, fairness, studiousness, and general intellect. Its miracles often involve binding demons, manipulating the laws of reality, and creating complex sorcerous mechanisms and constructs.

The Most Holy and the Savior Ushia:

Life is the soul enslaved by the flesh. Undeath is flesh commanded by the soul. To achieve heaven is to attain perfect control of one's own body such that its hungers may be quelled and its weaknesses quashed. The will of the Most Holy is to achieve this heaven on earth, and the Savior Ushia is the example given that this may be attained. This is the core of the doctrine practiced by the Ushian Church.

Following the age of Antiquity's collapse, the varying lesser powers swelled like the tide to devour the realms of fallen Nedesia and shattered Haim-Haneh. It was a time of great misery and apostasy, where men turned from righteous faith and towards Gnostic arrogance and unwholesome sacrifice. Into this era came the Savior, though it simply called itself Ushia. It would travel from kingdom to town to village, preaching its gospel. It was described as gentle and kind, but firm in its convictions. Indeed, of the great prophets its life is most documented, with no taboos regarding its depiction or speaking of its name.

Ushia claimed to serve an entity called the Most Holy, a being which loved humanity and wished for them to attain the perfect body and reach heaven on earth. It preached of charity, immortality, and martyrdom, for heaven on earth could only be obtained through generations of refinement and sacrifice. Furthermore, it claimed to be a creation of the Most Holy, and a representation of the perfected form which humans must strive to attain.

This made the powers that be most concerned. Necrotheurgy was rightfully feared at the time, associated only with death and horror. As such, Ushia was swiftly seized and burnt on the pyre. Yet, when the flames died down and the wailing onlookers saw its charred remains, Ushia's body was said to have glowed with holy light, reforming as if unharmed. With a booming voice it declared a war upon those who had turned away from the Most Holy's teachings, and in subsequent decades converted much of the southlands before, it is written, ascending to reunite with the Most Holy itself. Only many centuries later did the church's power wane with the rise of Multiplicity.

The priests of Ushia are renowned as healers and as raisers of the dead, fielding armies of sacred corpses in defense of their living flock, and curing the sick and diseased through their miraculous arts. All they ask in return is your corpse upon death, so it may be used to further the understanding of life and death and bring mankind closer to heaven on earth. Their grisly work has yet to bear fruit, and all too often their innovations are turned against them by secular necromancers who use their discoveries for their own ill designs, but they continue to struggle onward in the name of the Most Holy.

Others, however, consider them to be little more than deluded necromancers masking their ambitions with promise of healing and respite, making monsters of men and dreaming of a day when the chosen few rule a world of the obedient dead, an eternal planetary grave preserved in the void of the Outer Dark.

The Most Holy is depicted as a shining white star, a towering human skeleton, and a lake of black water. The Savior Ushia is depicted as an angelic young human of indistinct race or sex, with a perpetually beatific expression, clad in a simple robe. The Church's symbols are stylized pyres, sets of wings, angelic figures, and skeletal figures. The faith values charity, self-sacrifice, martyrdom, and humility. Its miracles involve cleansing flame, resurrections, impossible resilience, and acts of healing.

The Divine Duality of the Father and Mother:

From chaos must arise order, and order must come from willing duty. Duty must be backed by love, or else only tyranny shall result. Such are the teachings of the Father and Mother, the austere Great God and its mortal bride, who pleads to the iron-willed deity on behalf of its frail and fallible worshippers.

But this was not always so.

The Father arrived as a pitiless God, demanding obedience without question and punishment without leniency. It did not understand humans, as even calculating Metan and the alien Holy One did. It broke its chosen peoples in a crucible without end, and for a time it was thought that the Great God would burn itself out, and leave only a brief mark on human history.

This was changed by the love of a single person. It is unknown who she was, or what she was like, other than that she was singularly strange, and compassionate beyond all measure. Whereas all other Great Gods chose their prophets, the human that would become the Mother offered herself as its consort, and in doing so transfigured it into the stern, harsh, but fair being it has since become, a being which now understands mankind in ways it did not before.

So the priests of the Divine Duality preach, anyway. The doctrine is one of repression and virtue. Strive to be good, strive to be pious, strive to be charitable. Good deeds are done with one’s hands, not hymns. Forgive those who falter, but mete out justice should the hand of mercy be rebuked. The Duality is so known for its brutal justice in one aspect, and its loving mercy in the other. Mass executions and entire villages saved from famine. Barren churches and stern-faced priests but safe and loving homes. Holy wars sweeping multiple kingdoms which may bring down a great evil, or burn the hapless nonbeliever kingdoms to the ground. To some, they are avenging angels and heroes to those in need. To others, they are terrifying zealots, the most intolerant to alternative Gods of all the Great Faiths, and especially worship of the Titans. The worship of the Duality is submission to their wisdom, exchanging freedom for security, but it is a security backed by the divine rather than the fallible promises of kings. Heaven, they say, is already here. Humans can already attain it. No more change is needed, no great quest, no great transfiguration. Just live simply, and live virtuously. And should anyone ever

Of course, detractors level their accusations. Has the Father truly learned, or could it again become an all-smiting terror? Is the Mother truly a legendary saint, or a sorceress which had somehow done the unthinkable, enthralled a Great God to her own unknown will. Was she even human in the first place, or was the whole act of their union a mere play-acted thing by the being which was truly always the Mother and Father both? Can mere humans truly achieve heaven while remaining human, or is it a madness doomed to failure? For uncounted centuries the Duality has stood unchanging, its uncompromising zealotry a silent refutation of the heresies spawned against it. Yet neither has it spread across the world despite the claimed self-evidence of its simple truth.

The Duality is depicted as a male and female figure, often grand statues, faceless, wrapped around one another and embracing. Its faith is symbolized by a great eye, symmetrical doubled symbols. It values simple virtues, hard work, honesty, and obedience. Its miracles are often

The Sacred Host and the Lord-on-High:

Can all humans truly attain Heaven? How many among them have the strength of character to become and remain worthy? Should they try fruitlessly to enlighten the ignorant masses who can only save themselves? No, say the exemplars of the Sacred Host, chosen of the Lord.

The faith of the Host arrived from distant lands, and its first adherents are unknown. It is an old faith, but to the people of the Known world it is a mystery, only recently adopted. The Lord-On-High, sometimes depicted as the Lady, or as a sexless figure, demands only personal holiness. Your relationship with the Lord is all. Your own conduct, your own spiritual growth, is all. It came down and did not preach, it is said. It simply acted in a physical form, so achingly perfect, so beyond criticism in all ways, that those who saw it could not help but seek to embody it themselves. It gave no answers, but merely allowed itself to be watched, learned from, by those who sought it out. And from there, the Actions of the Lord were written. Freely disseminated, never preached. Always available, never forced upon anyone. Its priests are men and women of action, their ways spoken through their own acts of charity, of valor, of piety. They praise the Lord and sing their gospel to the Lord alone, but let others see them, indeed seek to perform such that others do see them, such that they are given the chance to take on the path themselves.

The Actions of the Lord is an easy tract to find, where its exemplars walk.

It is not an easy path to follow.

Perfect modesty. Perfect humility. Perfect charity. Perfect righteousness. Perfect valor. Perfect judgment.

Even if you cannot be perfect, you must strive to be nothing less. The Lord demands it. Seek perfection until you perish, and join the Host if you are worthy. That is all that is worth doing in life, and the exemplars, if asked, shall say as much.

In places where their faith dominates, it is often a land which, rather than being ruled by the servants of the Lord, merely exists in symbiosis with them. Sometimes, kingdoms have been founded in wild places purely because exemplars dwelled there, for the benefits they bring. What lord would not wish such righteous folk to live among his lands, helping the needy, slaying the beasts, bringing wisdom?

But it is not without flaw. For every true exemplar or aspirant of such, another falsely wears the title through ignorance or willful malice. True followers, while they preach with action rather than sermon, are given leave to take action against their fellows who have strayed from the path, or never walked it at all. But how does one prove such a thing? Many a serpent lies within the lands of the Lord, adored by those who do not know better. Some say this too is good, for how can one strive to be perfect without facing the ultimate temptations which come at the precipice of enlightenment? If one walks themselves into damnation, they have only themselves to blame, when the truth is so easily seen.

However, if that truth is suppressed, if the wicked would seek to erase the writ of the Lord, to exterminate its followers, such that no one would exist to teach its ways to others, then the perfect exemplars of the perfect lord may unite into a wrathful host, and remind the Known World that they are a force which is not to be trifled with.

To those opposed to the Host, it is a cruel institution indeed. Countless souls may be saved from misery if the Host simply built churches and held sermons, instead of leaving it in the hands of the masses. How many humans could be said to be literate, they say? What good is a book which cannot be read and is not read from by the masses? Is the Host for the highborn alone? The Host says that its exemplars are but a pilgrimage away. Study them and not the book, if you are unlearned. Perfection is not won without effort. If you would spend your life toiling in secular labor, then do so. If you are willing to abandon your earthly duties to achieve Heaven, then you have already begun your first steps to communion with the Lord.

The Lord-On-High is depicted as a human of any race or sex, with immaculate armor or regal clothing, their face obscured by clouds while the angelic figures of the sacred host flit around them on wings of light. Its miracles are associated with light, the sky,

The Diel and its Prophet:

The newest of the Great Faiths, the Diel is a rising power in the tropical north, competing with the ancient cults which previously held sway over those lands. During the apex of the Ushian Church's rule in the south, the tropics found themselves in the presence of a new prophet. Uniquely among the Three Great Faiths, the Prophet of the Diel's name and appearance have been erased from history, and while depictions of them are allowed, it is understood these faces are mere fabrications meant to show how the Prophet could have been anyone, for indeed this was the Prophet's desire, to exist only as their teachings.

The Prophet claimed to represent the will of the Diel, a transcendent force which sought to renew the covenant between man and the natural world. In the ancient days, when Paganry ruled unchallenged, the covenant of man and nature was writ in blood and suffering. Even now, the wilds and civilization remain adversarial. What the Diel seeks is union with all things, and through contemplation, understanding, and communion with all other life can all become truly one. Towards this end, the miracles of the Prophet were focused on the mastery of the mind. True to his name, the Prophet would give prophecy, and predict things which would come to pass. And indeed, they often did. Few if any have replicated the oracular accuracy the Prophet displayed. His holy book compiles his prophecies, and more have come true than not, though many say the rest simply have yet to manifest themselves, while others believe the Path takes measures to ensure their truth.

Regardless, it cannot be denied that the Diel has had a beneficial effect on its followers. Its temples provide wisdom and council through their oracles, and their miracles bring fertility to the land and beasts to pasture. They turn jungles into orchards and gardens, wild rivers into regulated canals, and the untamed plains into bountiful farmland. All that the Path asks is nothing less than total submission to the Prophet and his far-reaching orders. Indeed, it is believed that even the Prophet's natural death was in line with the will of the Diel, for their holy book continues to advise its readers and counter the Path's foes even centuries after their death. It is as if even from beyond the veil his words echo across time, prepared for every possibility and eventuality. The paradise Diel has offered is one where sin-inclined men need not lead themselves astray, for by giving themselves wholly to the control of this transcendent being perfection may be reached.

It is this seeming invincibility that sees the north grow ever more confident of the Diel's future supremacy, viewing the southern cultures as backwards and barbaric. It is likely there will be a great confrontation someday, if indeed it has not already begun. Or perhaps something even stranger will occur. Whatever the outcome, it is no doubt within the parameters of the Prophet's great and encompassing plan.

That said, if such a thing were true, to some it could be seen as a grave threat to man's spirit. If all things are to be planned by the Diel, and man's will stripped away, then what is he but an automaton puppeted by some greater being? Detractors argue that it is little but divine slavery, and must be opposed at all costs.

The Diel is not given a defined form (though it is depicted as manifesting as a glow around those who are in communion with it), and the Prophet, their name, appearance, and sex stricken from history, is portrayed in innumerable forms, marked only by the veil that covers the subject's face. The Path's symbol is as well a stylized eye, or eyes, the flags and ornamentation of the Path's property otherwise marked with verses from the calligraphy of their holy book. The faith values community, harmony, and above all submission to and trust in the will of the Diel and its Prophet over one's own free will.

The Multiplicity:

The Multiplicity is something very new in the world of El-Enlil, a mere few centuries old and spreading rapidly across the Known World. Originating in the South, the movement was started by a collection of radical theosophists, who claimed to have received revelatory visions from what would later be termed the Multiplicity.

It must be understood that in the eyes of most humans, to worship that which humanity is associated with is a backwards and even dangerous mode of thought. Humans are flawed, tainted by Primordial Sin, and even without it, allowed it to take root. Maybe not right now, maybe not them personally, but if humans are left without divine guidance for long enough, their works shall always fall to ruin. A long and prosperous history belongs to those who keep faith in the gods, the more removed they are from man's sin the better. It is for this reason that the strange and alien deities of the Great Faiths are so revered and widespread, for not only is their power mighty but so far removed are they from mankind's flaws that they are surely existences which can be trusted to guide us to a benevolent future.

Thus when it was claimed that it was mankind which was most deserving of worship, and that the earthly kings and holy men would be the gods of the new age, the new prophets only barely escaped with his life as enraged orthodox believers descended on them. However, his message was persuasive to those who listened, and his following slowly grew, particularly among the aristocracy who chafed at the power of the Ushian Church, which dominated the south at the time. Furthermore, its long reign of prosperity had indeed led to a period of lethargic apathy, and while its power waxed its support waned in the halls of the secular rulers. The principle was simple. Mankind had failed to attain divinity during the age of Titans because it was corrupt and immature, and that manner of ascendance, that of theophagy, was inherently sinful. Rather, one must strive to be saintly in life and worshiped in death, and if one is worthy they shall join the immortal saints of the afterlife, which collectively make up the whole of human spiritual power. Even Golamis, Ushia, the Mother, the greatest Exemplars, and the nameless Prophet of Diel were included in this holy court. The separation of the Great Faiths was misunderstanding and selfishness on behalf of the orthodox powers, who were corrupted by material greed and twisted by alien logic. It was a syncretic combination of the Great Faiths, ancestor worship, and the innumerable saint cults associated with such, and one that greatly appealed to those who sought a more hopeful and comprehensible view of divinity. Rallying the noble banners behind him, Hubon and his co-conspirators led a rebellion against the Great Faiths and the Ushian Church in particular, which despite their best efforts were defeated, the church's capital sacked and many of its secret arts stolen, leading to a subsequent proliferation of secular necromancers, which the now greatly-diminished Ushian Church spends much of its time combating or policing.

While wildly popular in much of the south and growing in the north, the Multiplicity is subject to a great many criticisms by those who oppose it. Primarily, it is believed by detractors to be nothing more than a confabulation on part of its originators, who was either deluded or outright malicious in his intent and sought to create a religion which could benefit and be manipulated by secular powers, ascribing them divine traits they surely did not deserve and allowing worldly powers to dictate divine doctrine, which shall surely lead to fracturing and disaster for the fledgling faith, if it has not yet become woefully corrupt already. Yet, there are notable Multiplicitists who truly seek to embody sainthood and have performed great deeds of heroism and selflessness. It is far too early to determine the truth, but should Multiplicitism be founded on lies the whole of the Known World may suffer as its believers are driven to their own self-destruction. Given the current state of things, some believe this process may have already begun. Regardless, it is one of the most persuasive and non-denominational faiths, so whether truth or lie is notable for being easy to adopt, exploit, and adhere to. Even with numerous setbacks, it has always brung back forth.

The Multiplicity is simply portrayed as an assemblage of various saints of various degrees of prominence, now-deceased founders among them. Its symbol is a circle with a line running vertically through it, extending downwards for a length typically half again the height of the circle. The faith values freedom, enlightenment, and happiness.

[squamous]

The Practical Faiths:

The Practical Faiths are those recognized by scholars as being knowledge-based and gains-based. That is, worshippers determined which gods are most suited for developing a relationship with, and through trial and error developed ways to appease or supplicate them to gain results. The disposition, attitude, and desires of the divinity they serve are irrelevant. It has that which they desire, and its demands, no matter what they are, must be fulfilled through ritual and sacrifice. Thus, it is a union of practicality, of mutual benefit. Something is sacrificed so that another thing is gained. These are some of the most ancient faiths known to man, and can be found anywhere, from massive and ancient cults to the smallest village superstitions.


Titan Cults:

One cannot talk about the Titans without first understanding what others think of them. To many, especially those of the Great Faiths, the Titans were monstrous and crude things, the originators of Primordial Sin, the great blight on mankind. But they were also our mothers and fathers, the reason humanity yet stands proud in this era, decayed and fragmented though it has become.

The Titan Cults are said to have originated from a single tribe or multiple tribes in the early history of man. This time was dominated by the Pagan Gods, those inhuman intelligences which squashed that which went against the red law of the natural world, yet also ruled it as a bestial garden. Only supplication and human sacrifice kept their wrath at bay, and man cowered at their terrible witless might. Yet in time, through sheer chance, the weakest of these beings was felled, and its flesh consumed, and its eaters granted apotheosis. These first, empowered by the Numen which now coursed through them, grew to monstrous size, wielding both great strength and crude miracles against the Terrestrial Gods, carving civilizations, the first human cities, cultures. They laughed and hunted and loved, and for a time they were noble and great.

But the hunts dwindled as the Terrestrial Gods fled to the deep places of the world, and in the absence of gods as prey their hunger grew unchecked, and brother turned against sister, father against mother, child against parent. They glutted themselves on each other, and those below them did as well. Wars of cannibalistic madness were waged, and cities ran red with butchered corpses. The shapers of human destiny were reduced to mad brutes, shells of their former selves. It was only when the first of the Great Gods, Metan, taught refined sorcery to its first priests that the Titans were destroyed, or perhaps sealed away. Though whether they are truly dead or but sleeping remains a question.

Of this event, all know the consequence. Its survivors bear Primordial Sin, the innate cannibalistic hunger which defines mankind. The knowledge that to eat the flesh of men is a stairway to divinity, at the cost of atrocity and horror. It is mankind’s greatest strength, for in times of chaos great and terrible champions are forged from their ranks, and its greatest weakness, for that same chaos may be brought about by the very act of anthropophagy.

Of those who still worship the Titans, for all their sins, there are three main derivations.


Monopantheonic Cults: The Titans live, they are but sleeping. One day they will rise again to consume the unbelievers and grant the faithful the strength to sit at their table. But as they sleep, they still hunger, and sacrifices of blood and shows of bravery are that which they sup upon. Supplicate them and you shall be rewarded. Disrespect them, and crops shall fail, hail shall rain, and calves shall be stillborn. They make their pleasure or displeasure known through the omens in the entrails of sacrifices and the movement of the sea and earth and sky. There is only one pantheon, one family, and all others are false.

Multipantheonic Cults: As above, but believe that there were multiple tribes, and claim the Titans they worship are their ancestors. They carry on the righteous struggle of their clan against their enemies and the foreign Titans which begat them. They tend to be slightly more tolerant of outsiders both within and without of the overall Titan-worshiping culture.

Transcendent Cults: The Titans may be sleeping or they may be dead, but it is irrelevant, they failed, but proved the path. For what was done once may be done again. These cults believe in the elevation of themselves, or the heads of their religions, into new Titans. As divine flesh is rare these days, this is often done through excessive cannibalism. The other Titan cults tend to regard them as ambitious usurpers at best and heretical fools at worst.


Ancestor Cults:

Compared to the Titan cults, which despite their varied interpretations and fickle natures may be broadly united by their nature, the ancestor cults are yet more diverse. Ghosts, fragments of Numen untethered by a fleshly form, have been known to exist for as long as human history. Though their true nature is unknown, with some thinking them but records of life to others thinking them the deceased themselves. The ancestor cults take the view that ghosts are indeed their still-present ancestors, watching them from the realm of the aether to ensure their own prosperity. Unlike the Titan cults, where men appease cold and distant rulers which slumber unending in their hidden tombs, the ancestor ghosts are more personal, less alien, yet also less powerful. An adherent of an ancestor cult may pray to a household shrine for a safe birth, protection from curses, or other little things. A village invokes the whole of their ancestors in a great ritual to ensure a good harvest or simply to retain their good will. They tend to preserve the traditions of the old ways, and keep exhaustive track of their histories and bloodlines so they know who to appease and how. Even places which adhere to other concepts of the afterlife and mark ghosts as but fragments and memories of the deceased rather than their true selves may seek to placate them nonetheless, for even a fragment may possess a power in it to protect its descendants from harm. Regardless of the status of the ghosts themselves, the rituals certainly seem effective.

Though, in the Known World nations which have fully adopted ancestor cults are few and far between. Only the men of the High Steppes have nations fully comprised of ancestor worshipers, with the other faiths having relegated such things to a fringe minority or superstitious practice. The remnants of mere humans, it would seem, offer less protection and power than the greater beings other peoples pay homage to.




Planetary Cults:

There are 13 great celestial bodies in the sky. First is burning Solst, around which the other bodies orbit. Closest is El-Mahrabis of beaten stone and rock, El-Jetai with its yellow clouds and terrible denizens, El-Raphtel with its endless ruins, our own worl of El-Enlil, El-Dyur of purpled continents, El-Borad the first great swirling giant of gas, Green-sea'd and gray-stoned El-Ishar, El-Bal with its reddened sky and black scorched earth, Green and cold El-Suryanra, Quiet and distant gaseous El-Kuhad, the incandescent white vaporous giant El-Immancon, El-Katal with its silvered spot upon an otherwise barren landscape, and lastly dread El-Yors and its great alien mausoleums. These lands have been visited in dreams by seers and some in waking by great practitioners of Gnosis. It is believed among many that their arrangement in the sky effects the fortunes and tendences of life in this world, and those who can understand their movements and effects can gain great fortune and wisdom. The Planetary Cults are those organizations dedicated to this study. They make no offerings and speak no prayers, only ceaselessly watch, study, and record the movements of the spheres. Given their constant appearance throughout history, and indeed their more-than-inconsequential success, they may well be privy to truths granted to them through their esoteric practices. Though it is a most unconventional faith, a faith it surely is, with people both high and low-born placing their faith in the heavenly spheres and their strange energies when making decisions of import, though its true adherents are few, typically scholars, aristocrats, and practitioners of the Gnosis. The layman and dabbler likely keep other gods closer to their hearts than the cold and distant celestial bodies.

The Incarnated Schism: A minor interpretation worth mentioning. Appearing during antiquity, the Incarnated Planetary Cult believes that the 13 bodies and El-Enlil's moon are not just impersonal celestial powers but true thinking beings just as a man would be, and have incarnated physical forms and roles in reality. Solst is the god of gods, to which the others pay homage. Mahrabis is his herald, Jetai his rival, Raphtel the general, Enlil the warden of life, Dyur the bacchanal celebrant, Borad the laborer, Ishar the mother, Bal the inauspicious, Suryanrahu the teacher, Kuhad the innocent, Immancon the judge, Katal the scholar, Yors the keeper of the underworld, and Lune as the maddened oracle. This faith was once prominent, but has since been delegated to obscure mystery cults and fanciful works of fiction. After all, to assign humanized traits to the gods is nothing short of madness and apostasy, and a flaw mankind must steadily keep in check. The gods are not to be considered human, especially where the Great Faiths are concerned.



Saint Cults:

Saint Cults are unique among the Practical Faiths in that they are derived from the Ideal Faiths of the Great Gods. There are those practitioners among them who gain great acclaim through their actions, and become in the eyes of the people minor deities unto themselves. Unlike the Great Gods, whose vast mind and long-reaching concerns span millennia, the Saints are much more approachable when praying for a healthy child or good harvest. Thus, the Saint Cults can be likened to the ancestor cults, in that they are elevated mortal spirits which intercede on behalf of the living, though unlike ancestor cults they are not restricted to blood ancestors and intercede as agents of greater powers entirely. There are many reliquaries which carry the embalmed or otherwise preserved remains of saints or other great men, just as in the ancestor cults, and these talismans are believed to be receptacles of potent Numinous power. Saint cults range from abhorred to tolerated to accepted, for while they may sway the unwitting off of the path to salvation they may also provide comfort and succor in a way the distant Great Gods do not. And indeed, it may be that the Saints do answer the cries of the people from time to time, though whether these are true miracles or simply a form of Gnosis is a contentious debate.


Chthonian Cults:

It may be difficult to imagine why one would pay homage to the creatures of read Chthon, but it happens all the same, Rhemnysia of course being the prime example of such things. The creatures of Chthon are not without guile and cunning, and indeed they can offer immense power and knowledge, progenitors as they are of the flesh-warping arts. Their demands are also simple. Living humans to be given wholly to them in sacrifice, for purposes best left unthought.

Rhemnysia was by far the greatest nation to worship demons, though it was originally believed to not be so. It was once far nobler, but grew corrupt and decadent, its aristocracy desiring ever greater power to best its rival of Haim-Haneh, culminating in dark bargains exchanged for the secrets of creating monstrous chimerae, which even now menace the lands. However, the constant presence of demonry gradually destabilized the mighty empire, and it collapsed at the same time beleaguered Haim-Haneh did, rendering their sacrifices moot. It is a cautionary tale these days, about how consorting with Chthon will lead only to ruin, and even the greatest and wisest are vulnerable to their manipulations.

Abominable cults to Chthonic entities are spread all over the known world, and utterly detested. Even the staunchest enemies may put aside differences to purge such groups from their lands. Though, it should be noted that to bind demons is different than to consort with them, though the ignorant may not make this distinction.


The Terrestrial Gods:

The fact that you can read and comprehend these symbols is proof enough of your sin, in the eyes of the Terrestrial Gods, more commonly known as the Pagan Gods. They are the oldest recorded deities in the known world, their infinitely varied incarnations springing up in myth and history among all the tribes of man. And almost always, they are figures of fear and superstition. For the Terrestrial Gods are aligned with principles wholly against civilization as humanity understands it, and when the first Titans hunted, killed, and ate the weakest of them, ascending to godhood, they developed a deep, animal hate, so it is said. They are not simply stewards of the natural world and guardians of balance, as romanticists would have one believe, but the enforcers of the Red Law which guides their every action.

Why does merely reading this constitute sin, you may ask? It is the abstraction of it. You exist one degree removed from the primal now, the state of thought unrestrained by the abstract symbolism of literature and language. To see the word tree and see four squiggles on paper and a fragment of noise which on its own means nothing yet to you calls to mind the image it represents is to the Red Law an abomination. Mankind and all others who have fallen for the deception of symbolic thought must be returned to the purity of the natural world, either through elevation into beasts or as rotting fertilizer for the forests that will grow over their broken cities.

For most, however, this loyalty is half-hearted. The sin of abstraction is writ deep into thinking beings, and most simply keep the Terrestrial Gods pleased with self-abasement, forgoing comfort and only spitting out those hated words when necessary. Using tools only with great recrimination and daring to do such a thing as count only after begging forgiveness, which itself only speaks to the sin of identity and fear of the future. In short, the Pagan faith is a faith of the mad or inhuman. But should one truly manage to shed themselves of the trappings of civilization, the rewards can be great indeed. The numen flows through them like a mighty river, and their miracles are slow and powerful things. Storms can be called up and entire forests made to move. Plagues unleashed and hordes of beasts united in lethal fury. The priests of the Red Law are demigods covered in blood and excrement.

The Marinal Cults:

Of the Practical Faiths, the Marinal Cults are most enigmatic. The gods of the sea are believed to be a like kind to the Terrestrial Gods, but unlike the Pagan gods of the land, the Titans did not conquer them. Some of the mightiest of Titans were dragged beneath the waves by shadowed bulk for their hubris, for while matched evenly on the ground, the waters were terrain too alien, and no matter the great hunts held, the Marinal Gods could never be truly bested. And so instead they were left alone and forgotten, and the oceans remain wholly wild and monstrous.

Very few humans outright worship the Marinal Gods, but seafaring cultures may offer them heavy sacrifice in the hopes their vessels survive the open waters. Sometimes it seems to work, other times it does not. It is whispered that great floods have wiped out entire peoples in the past over some incomprehensible slight or even just the whim of these enigmatic divinities. As of the present, the only known civilizations which truly have established any rapport with these unknowable deities are the man-beasts of aquatic mien, who by changing their very bodies to more mimic the creatures of the sea have had their minds warped to better understand the wills of their alien masters.



The Apostasies:

The Apostasies are schools of theological or Gnostic thought which are considered dangerous and subversive by the current ruling powers for whatever reason. Listed below are the most commonly (but not universally) recognized.

The Titan's Apostasy:

The Titans are certainly gods now. Through the consumption of divine flesh, became divine themselves. But they were men once, who turned their back on the divine, committing the Primordial Sin. Thus, while the worshipers of the Titans are grudgingly admitted as faithful due to the qualitative change theophagy forced on them, the Titans themselves, and those who seek to become them in the present era, are technically apostates. However, the first Titans are often referred to as the Forgiven Apostates even among members of the Great Faiths, for no Great Faith had existed at the time to give morality and reason to man, as far as is known. Indeed, without their actions mankind would remain cowering primitives under the shadow of the natural gods. But even so, many would prefer not to see the Titans walk the earth again, nor any new ones born, for all legends tell where that road leads. Any who even claim to seek either goal are often the subject of inquisition and holy war.


The Sorcerer's Apostasy:

The Sorcerer's Apostasy is one of the most insidious and disturbing to many faithful. In short, it posits that the Great Gods are so fundamentally alien as to not even be truly aware of humans, and their messiahs are the true masterminds of the faiths, simply sorcerers tapping into the power of those great entities to further their own all-too-human agendas. The terrestrial gods, likewise, are simply the peak of sorcery which can be attained, the Titans, Pagan Gods, and other such things being the natural end point of an individuals journey in the Gnosis. This apostasy rejects the transcendent wisdom of divinity and attributes that to humanity which it does not possess or deserve, and ascribes to the speaker themselves the potential for true godhood devoid of the qualitative change in nature which is understood to be a requirement for godly ascension. In short, that the only difference between a sorcerer and a god is knowledge. This is an apostasy of immense hubris and danger, for it drives countless Gnostic practitioners throughout history to seek divinity for its own sake, more often than not creating horror and disaster in the process.


The Anthropic Heresy:

To see humanity in the inhuman is a trait of mankind. However, it is also a weakness, for it blinds us to true divinity. Since man first looked upon the world, he has ascribed divine purpose to it. But in doing so, he has often found god where it was not, and ascribed its protection to what was in truth random chance. False gods can arise from the human tendency to characterize that which is but the blind action of natural forces, leading peoples to worship nothing and thus lack true divine guidance, which always ends in disaster. The true gods are not some fancies or reflections of the human mind but fully realized beings divorced from what a mortal may believe a god "ought" to be. Be wary of the preacher whose god seems too human, for this is a sign of a false prophet.

[squamous]

An update for you all

[Lidku]

  Most underrated modder DF ever had!

[kriv02]

Do you plan on making the non-human races playable in fortress mode?

[squamous]

Do you plan on making the non-human races playable in fortress mode?

Maybe at a later date. I'm torn between keeping them unplayable and thus somewhat capable of retaining their exotic mystique and having them playable for the sake of different fort styles.

[kriv02]

Makes sense. I'd fall on the fort variety side, if that makes any difference, but the mod is already quite impressive as it is.

[Leonxnoel]

Yet another amazing mod with a really intriguing setting, squamous. Keep it up, im really looking forward to seeing more updates from this one, the whole gothic thing with dark gods reminds somewhat of Bloodborne. Fear the old blood.

[Uthimienure]

Ooooo, this mod looks good! ... I'm not even going to ask the $64,000 question.

[squamous]

Ooooo, this mod looks good! ... I'm not even going to ask the $64,000 question.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. If that question is "do you intend to update this mod to the current version" then you'll be pleased to know I just did. Otherwise hit me up.

[Uthimienure]

You were correct about the "question" and thank you for the update 

I love the music!

Did you customize the default embark profile, and if not, do you have a recommended profile?

Is it correct to assume the Marksdorf skill is used for all the guns?

(edit)

In general, do you have any quick tips for play?