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[Fault]

I've barely revealed anything about the background mythos and people already have theories?!

[Acanthus117]

It shows how awesome this is, man.

[Fault]

really though. I know I've told you and Josh a lot about what's really going on, but there's still a huge load of background information that hasn't yet made it into the comic.

that reminds me, I still have to send MAJOR PLOT POINT TWO to you guys.

[RedWarrior0]

(particularily the mechanics of how the Dwarven Pantheon exists simultaneously with the other religous figures)

This. A common issue. Deal with it in an uncommon way.

[Fault]

worry not, redwarrior.
that issue is one of the few things I have actually bothered to sort out!
but elaborating on it would reveal extremely pivotal information about the larger scale of the Effigies world, so it shall have to wait.

EDIT: I have added a progress tab to the original post, which details how far I am into making and colouring new pages.

[Fault]

with the realease of Page #35, chapter two has officially begun.

not much happens on this page, considering it's just a map!

also, I have currently coloured two panels of page #16.

[Org]

Spoiler:  Dwarven Religion (click to show/hide)

 DWARVEN RELIGION

history:
As far back as the dwarves can remember, certain individuals of their species have claimed to hear the voices of gods. Some gods were even thought to have manifested physically to commune with the dwarven race. The first of these gods, who was only known as a God of Storms, was believed to have created the dwarven race some time before the age of peace.
The dwarven gods were strongest during the age of war - there were hundreds of supposed manifestations on the battlefield, and many reported hearing the gods chanting and pounding war drums during thunderstorms. However, A strange thing occured on the day the human "saviour" was born. For the first time in centuries, the dwarven gods were silent. And since his birth and death, no dwarf has ever reported hearing them again. This led to a decline of the dwarven priest class, until the only remnants of their once great faith were idols that sit neglected in the houses of particularily superstitious dwarves.
religous figures:
Thunder God: The leader of the dwarven Pantheon, who was believed to speak to the King and the high priests of dwarven society. It is said that particularily significant dwarves were taken to his halls after their deaths - some were even thought to have become gods themselves.
Other Gods: the dwarven pantheon contains countless gods (some more widespreadly worshipped than others) who were believed to be dwarves who died and were taken up to live in the thunder god's halls.
religous sites:
There are many dwarven temples (usually situated on mountaintops or underground caverns) in the far south and east of the world, but since the great exodus to the areas surrounding the Keep prior to the age of reason, almost all of these temples have been forgotten.
Holy book:
The history of the dwarves and their gods is traditionally engraved on the walls of their dwellings, or carved into stone tablets. Dwarves, being a long-lived race, prefer more permanent materials (like stone) to the books and scrolls used by humans.
Current practices
Particularily suspicious dwarves might keep an idol of their family's patron deity in their house, or perhaps utter the god's name as an expression of shock, but other than that there is widespread agnosticism among the modern dwarven populace (mostly due to the recent silence of their gods and the dissolving of the priest class)

Some are questions. Some are criticism.

Are the God of Thunder and the God of Storm the same thing? Usually when one race is created by a god, they usually worship him most of all.

God of Thunder. Very Cliche. If they war so much, they might have a God of War as there lead god. Or something. You siad they were strongest during war.

The saviour. For the humans. You have no time for the arrival of him. About how many years since the start of the point in Effigies was he born? Does he know he is the saviour? Is he immortal? Is he worshipped? I can't remember if this part was in the human religion part. Like if it said anything about it. 

Very strange... The priest class dwindles down. Yet, if you take an example like religion in real life, no God or god has contacted anyone in millenniums, yet there are still many priests.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

my main issue is that an underground race would worship a deity linked  to the sky they rarely see. dwarves would be better off worshiping earth itself, or have a pantheon linked to the different metals and alloys. in bronze battle axe, a forum rp i was hosting some months ago, i had my bronze age dwarves worshiping mother earth malachite, and father cassiterite, parents of bronze, the god of war. then the usurper god of blood, hematite, showed up

[Fault]

God of Thunder. Very Cliche. If they war so much, they might have a God of War as there lead god. Or something. You siad they were strongest during war.

yes, perhaps their lead god should be associated with a different aspect. however, one element I have to keep is that the pantheon was started by that one god, and all the others who came after him were dead dwarves that he raised to godhood.

The saviour. For the humans. You have no time for the arrival of him. About how many years since the start of the point in Effigies was he born? Does he know he is the saviour? Is he immortal? Is he worshipped? I can't remember if this part was in the human religion part. Like if it said anything about it. 

this was all explained in the Human Religion>history tab.

Very strange... The priest class dwindles down. Yet, if you take an example like religion in real life, no God or god has contacted anyone in millenniums, yet there are still many priests.

dwarves treat religion a little differently than man. They take their relationship with the gods a lot more literally, considering that almost all of their gods were once dwarves themselves. It is a bit of an equal partnership - if the gods no longer help/communicate with the dwarves, then the dwarves no longer offer them any worship or aknowledgement.

my main issue is that an underground race would worship a deity linked  to the sky they rarely see. dwarves would be better off worshiping earth itself, or have a pantheon linked to the different metals and alloys. in bronze battle axe, a forum rp i was hosting some months ago, i had my bronze age dwarves worshiping mother earth malachite, and father cassiterite, parents of bronze, the god of war. then the usurper god of blood, hematite, showed up

you have a lot of good Ideas. I will definitely have to find a better aspect to associate the chief of the pantheon with.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I wish I was a dwarf now.

[eerr]

Is the "savior" a religious leader or a military leader?

[Fault]

He's both.

did you even read the "human religion" info box?

[Dagoth Urist]

God of Love, God of the Seas, God of Wisdom and God of Luck. Proto-Indo-European gods follow a pattern, i.e: There are gods and they have their spheres, portfolios and abstracts concepts. "Gods of- deities". Most conventional fantasy portray their gods the same way, for example: Bane is the god of Hate & Fear. I'm not blaming anyone; it's a good and easy way in order to comprehend the conworld's divinity - But it's not a necessity in order to make a pantheon. That would however, be the real unconventional way.

God of Thunder. Very Cliche. If they war so much, they might have a God of War as there lead god. Or something. You said they were strongest during war.

yes, perhaps their lead god should be associated with a different aspect. however, one element I have to keep is that the pantheon was started by that one god, and all the others who came after him were dead dwarves that he raised to godhood.

Ironically, a God of War would be a ten times more kliché than a God of Thunders. That's not an exaggeration. Then again, would it be weird for dwarves to recognize and worship storms and thunder? Both are weather phenomena found outside, in the sky. The antithesis of the dwarven comfort zone, no question about that. Storms and Thunder are foreign and strange. The sky and stars were, and in some way still are, strange and incomprehensible to us humans. We called our god "Sky-Father", yet we didn't ever live in the sky, did we? I wouldn't think it wrong that dwarves had a god of Thunders or of Storms, as long as they have a modicum of curiosity and have actually seen the sky and outside world and gasped at "the alien world". For them to experience a thunderstorm would be for us to travel to the eye of god! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_God.

[Org]

Not as the leader.

[Fault]

the thing about Effigies Dwarves that differentiates them from Dwarf Fortress dwarves is that they are not associated with the deep underground as much as they are with high mountain peaks. (I should probably have elaborated on this earlier!)

Essentially, they were once a subterranean race, but the voice of their god sort of called them upwards. And Dagoth raises a good point about gods being associated with the celestial - I wanted to keep this theme with the dwarves, but have them associated with a more violent and turbulent aspect of the sky than mankind's "Sun God" ideology. As of now, a God of Storms seems most fitting for the historical dwarves (who were a much more warlike race than what they became in the Age of Reason), despite how cliche it may be.