The Old Divh, and their Aspects
In days of old, when the Old Way was simply 'The Way', and the Old Divh were known better as the Elder Divh, the Firstborn, the Unborn, and the Fonts, the Old Way's teachings (in some form) were known and held over half the world. But then men came, and with them marched shining Earthly Divh, and in the face of these attackers the Old Divh did nothing to answer the pleas of their loyal. Their secrets distorted, warped, and destroyed those who heard them. Their teachings turned man against man. And slowly, the Old Way grew into a faith, not about glorifying the Unborn, but fearing them. Temples warned of their wroth, the strange dreams they sent, and the ultimate horrors of the secrets they taught. And so, around the Inner Sea the temple persisted and flourished.
Though the Kelorn Temple never took root in the Southlands properly, the Divh of the Old Way managed to make their way to the south, both with the Kelorn Empire's influence, and then with the expansion of religious thinking during the short-lived reign of the Magocracy, and the enlightened age that followed it. Thus while there is little concept of a unified pantheon, or of a unified priesthood, the veneration of the seven Elder Divh has been the focus of the faith of those kingdoms since time immemorial. Memory of the Sundering, and fear of the Divh's wrath is not far from the minds of these folk, it is not so close at hand as in Arumthar or the west, and faith is not so thankless here, but rather promises insight and wisdom, if not boons, that lead to a better life.
In both regions, individual teachings and interpretations of scripture can vary wildly from place to place, as individual prophets and thinkers become popular in one arm of a faith but not another. And the temple wields no true worldly power as they do in the lands to the west, where men were once ruled by Divh. And it is natural to them that a priest be a man of power, or that a faith have leaders and wealth and privilege. Here shrines and temples live from donation, as do the clerics that attend them, and minister to the masses. Private priests, kept within the guilds or noble families, are very common, while the peasants must settle for those that can make a living in their faith, meaning that small settlements seldom have their own priest, relying on wandering preachers and missionaries for spiritual guidance.
Athanas
The Filler of the Void, Eidolon of Mercy, Punisher of the Impure.
The Divhi Athanas is, perhaps surprisingly, the most popular of the Divhidre. Athanas is associated with charity and of duty, he is patron of homes and civilization, and a cornerstone of morality. Never given to see oppositions amongst their Divh, Athanas is worshipped as Divhi of good and evil, a judge who labels the just and the wicked, and knows what is right and wrong in the world, but is himself neither. This was his gift to the mortal world it its inception - that there would be good and there would be fell, and that mortals could choose either.
In the world that is not, he balances things against one another, and seeks merit by which to compare them. People seek the advice of the clerics of Kalakhi to do good, or to be forgiven for evil. In fact the roving confessors of Kalakhi dole out penance and divine forgiveness, for a substantial price, and in turn give to the needy and destitute from these offerings. Of course, people do not forget that the Divhi does not understand such things - they believe merely that he breathed these aspects into the world when it was new, and wishes to see his creations in the souls of mortals.
Kalakhi
The Author of Vision, The Gold-Robed Divhi, He Who Returns, Souleater.
Kalakhi is the Divhi most associated with prudence, wealth, and individual merit, popular with merchants, athletes, and those who excel personally. In the unworld he is allowed to consume the souls that Athanas deems unworthy, and sees to it that the truly great to be reborn. It is said that in the creation of mortality Kalakhi's gifts were insight, intellect, skill, and craft to the world's inoffensive inheritors. He gave them the ability to better themselves and made them masters over the natural world of beasts that they might make destiny their own.
Many of the higher ups within the guilds are devoted heart and soul to Kalakhi, whose clerics teach that the path to salvation from Kalakhi's consumption in the afterlife is through excelling in the mortal world. Kalakhi's followers see life as a sort of proving ground, where a man is given the opportunity to demonstrate his worth by excelling in the face of others, especially in adversity, thereby driving others to even greater achievements, to best him. Indeed, their priests teach that a man who forces another to exceed him is, in part, responsible for his competitor's success. Many merchants and nobles keep house clerics of Athanas to advise them.
Otta
The Doom of the Imperfect, Rider of Storms, The Beyonder, Chaos.
In a land where the Sundering's echoes are still heard in the thunder of earth and sky, it is impossible to ignore Otta the Divhi of sea and storm who must be placated, lest he sent deadly tides and terrible floods to smash the mortals of the world. Otta is said to have given wildness, storms, and chaos to the world, and he is a font of misfortune, but he only punishes the incautious for his is to punish undue pride, and expunge foolishness from the world. They say that Otta hastens the doom of those who destined to feed Kalakhi anyway. Fear is a powerful thing, and Otta's extensive following is proof of this. When a man feels his life is out of control or his fortunes have turned against him, he will seek a roving priest of Otta, known as Vision Men, who wander the land preaching doom and cataclysm, and going into violent fits during evil visions of destruction, to make reparation to Otta.
Amongst his cults, who seek to paint Otta in more positive light, it is said that he saw mortal beings had grown apart from the world, and sought to restore them. And so he gave them mastery over the beasts that walk the land, and the life that sprouts within it. So he is patron to those who make their living from the wilds.
Elis
The Red Faced Divhi/The Gold Faced Divhi, The Beginning and the End, Keeper of the Portal.
There are two distinct sects within the following of the Divhi Elis. The first, the golden temple, is devoted to life, and is made up of healers and those learned in the ways of child birth. They share charms for health, luck, and well-being, and potions and herb lore that cure illness and aid wounds knitting and bones mending. However the red temple deals exclusively with death, taking away the dead, and ministering to the grieving survivors. The temple teaches that Elis defends balance in all things - with the joy of birth comes the sorrow of death - and they seek to minister to people at the beginning and end of life, but in a fatalistic twist the red temple has become increasingly powerful, while the golden temple is slowly falling from prominence. Indeed in the north the red temple is growing from the traditional shared faiths of the Southlands, to a united faith, more and more resembling the temples of the great Landsmen civilizations.
It is said that at the close of the elemental wars, when the Old Divh put mortals in the world Elis gave an odd gift indeed. For she gave time to the world, and made things able to age. Defining the mortal state by guaranteeing that from the moment of birth all of their number marched inevitably unto death.
Modan
Keeper of Secrets, Hoarder of Souls, The Pale Worm of Shadows.
Modan is the Divhi of spirits and secrets, keeper of the afterlife, turned to by those who seek to uncover secrets, or speak to the dead. He keeps court over those souls deemed ready to be sent back into the world, until their time is come to return. His priests are rare, but not unpopular, as many wish to speak to their departed ancestors, and Modan's priests are able to allow the spirits of the dead to possess their bodies and speak through their mouths; though the experience is a terrible one, and the price is high. Those who seek to draw back the veil of death, and glimpse what awaits them beyond (and eventually this is everyone) seek Modan's often reclusive faithful, whose insights and divinations given them from the afterlife, are often eerily accurate.
O'ah
The Sleeper, The Unmaker, He Who Slumbers at the End of Reality.
The ancient and inscrutable maker of the world, O'ah is often mentioned, but he is seldom directly worshipped. Still, his shrine always stands ignored in the temples, and there are some few priests who devote themselves to delving the divine secrets of the universe. Dense volumes of written work, espousing philosophy, complex divine metaphysics, and arcane metaphors are turned out by scholars of profound intellect, patronized by wealthy men who feel that such questions are worthy of answers. But on the whole, O'ah offers little of use to the common man of the East, and they have little interest in him. While many see O'ah as mightiest, or chief amongst the Old Divh, he is not the ruler, nor their eldest, merely it was he who created the world. And torn asunder as he now is, he is more likely the least potent of his unintelligible brethren.
Bahru
Legend says that when first O'ah chose to unmake the world, that the other Old Divh tore him asunder, and his sinister half took on a new guise - an eighth Divh, both an aspect of O'ah, and not. This capricious creature, known as fate itself, was both lesser and greater than the other Divh. For while he was finite - born to a world already real - he was more a part of that world than his brethren could ever be. Bahru alone knows and guides the predetermined destiny of the world, and some say he can even change it. To the Goblyns, especially to the north, his cult is the most popular of all of the Old Divh and his altar takes pride of place in their temples - eclipsing that of O'ah. But in other lands he is completely omitted. Even in the city of the Old Divh he does not have his own palace, but rather a wing of O'ah's grand villa is sundered apart, walled off from the city-proper, and accessible only from without. Here is the home of Bahru, defaced with the scrawled prophecies of seers and madmen for millennia.
Sen
Font of the Divine, Whisperer of Secrets, Render of Sanity, She Who is Glimpsed Outside Seeing.
However, perhaps surprisingly, even less popular than the worship of O'ah is that of Sen, Divhi most aligned with art, inspiration, and scholars. The say that when the Divh place mortals in the world Sen gave mortals a mixed blessings, for she brought to them passion. Anger, lust, love, hatred, gladness and mourning are all her province. But Sen's worship is considered a sign of weakness, effeminacy, or in some cases insanity, and Sen is associated closely with madness. Poets, sculptors, and other artists might secretly look to Sen for inspiration, as a a sort of muse, but their worship is a very personal one, and very few would be willing to seen to visit a priest of Sen, who are said to be raving madmen without exception. As a result those that do teach Sen's words are paupers, lunatics, and dreamers who drink too much, or partake of some less wholesome vice.
Schisms
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The Clergy
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Vestments
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The Old Primarchs
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The Temple of the Old Divh
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Laity
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Teachings and Scripture
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Offerings and Fear
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The Afterlife
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Holy Days
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