Cozmology: Zarth, the God-Corpse

     The easiest plane to reach after the River of Dreams, the only entities that are regularly conjured to the Material Plane are fire elementals. Despite an inability to communicate with the natives, enough has been gleaned from the rare resurrected person and interviewing other outsiders to paint a picture of the plane.

     The first thing to be understood is that Zarth is massive, as can be expected of the corpse of a god. The most knowledgeable outsider interviewed, a demon under Zorutsok called Tarnathak, described traveling from ankle to knee as having taken him more than a year of traveling without pause. This considers difficulties due to terrain and his ability to outrace a warhorse. When asked why he had traveled to Zarth in the first place, Tarnathak’s reply was a toothy grin.

Cosmology: The River of Dreams

By far the largest of the planes, some scholars feel that it belongs within a separate category, for it defies most attempts at fitting the definition of a plane of existence. No creatures summoned from it can describe it to researchers, so scholars are forced to extrapolate what they can from the bits and pieces that ancient texts describe and the rigors of conjuring its inhabitants.

     Like all planes, there are creatures that call it home. The most well-known are the water elementals, entities composed entirely of the stuff of the plane. Unlike the other planes, very few permanent settlements exist. These settlements act as neutral grounds between the inhabitants of the planes of Urzalak and Yinnola. On rare occasions, the largest of these settlements see fiery visitors from Zarth’s corpse on some mission that takes them away from their home. Some scholars theorize that the nature of the River prevent any such settlements from forming, the River reflects the minds that inhabit it after-all. Despite this malleability, or perhaps because of it, the River follows no consistent logic outside of the more stable settlements.

Kyrnash, Lady of the Forest

"How would I describe Kyrnash? I would say that she is all that is nature. She is kind, she is ruthless, she is cruel, she is motherly; basically, if an adjective applies to the world outside of cities, it applies to her."
  - Old Growth Edric Greenbeard

Alternate Names: Hellededd (elf), Soliturae (gnome), Tasagdo (orc), Wegleas (halfling), Zerloi (dwarf)
Expanded Domains: Animal, Decay, Earth, Fire, Growth, Plant, Seasons, Water, Weather
Portfolio: animals, forests, seasons, stone, volcanoes

Knowledge (religion) DC 10:
The eldest of Aelma and Erb's children, Kyrnash shaped the lands when the world was forged. Known as Lady of the Forest and Mother of Beasts, Kyrnash designed and created nearly every animal after she created the wilds. She tore water from the sky to fill lakes, pulled the mountains from the ground, created predator and prey. Prayers are made by hunters for her grace, and settlements of all sizes make offerings of incense and the destruction of axes and saws to avert her wrath. It is said that villages that do not make acceptable offerings to Kyrnash find their crops suffering from blight, decaying when they should be flourishing.
     Acolytes dedicated to Kyrnash are called Saprolings, and upon finishing their training they are elevated to Growths. The highest ranking members of Kyrnash's followers are Old Growths, sometimes called Archdruids by outsiders. In art, Kyrnash is most frequently depicted as a black-haired woman clothed in rustic leather with a hunting bow. Often birds and small forest animals such as squirrels and foxes are depicted either next to her or on her shoulders.

Maidanaa, the Matron

“The Lady beseeches us to care for our families and communities, and to beware those that hide in the shadows. Beware the well-meaning heretic, who seeks to replace the voice of truth with the lies of falsehood.”

—    Crescent Moon Artain to his constellation

Alternate Names: Anyold (dwarf), Eksah (orc), Ileumel (elf), Luna (gnome), Mona (halfling)

Expanded Domains: Chaos, Community, Family, Good, Healing, Love, Protection, Rage, Restoration

Portfolio: childbirth, devotion, fertility, healing, kinship, marriage, motherhood, the night sky, wrath

Reports of Heretics

High Justicar Varain read through the reports on his desk after a day of purifying the corrupt and the heretical. Several inquisitors had managed to purge a cult masquerading as followers of The Lady. Good, the priests of the other gods may be sloppy in purging the heretic from their ranks, but the servants of The Lady would not be so lax.

Yalma, the Blind Judge

"The man that passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. If you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.”

—    George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Alternate Names: Aequitas (gnome), Cyfamd (elf), Dema (halfling), Igazvedo (dwarf), Khagaal Yol (orc)

Expanded Domains: Glory, Good, Honor, Law, Leadership, Nobility, Protection, Resolve, Strength

Portfolio: honor, guardians, law, leadership, justice, protection

Orlag, the Keeper of Secrets

“So much knowledge has been lost to the ages, it is our job to recover what has been forgotten or die trying.”

—    Professor Agrippo Gorinus Fludinus, high priest of Orlag

Alternate Names: Cyfrin (elf), Eruditio (gnome), Gealdor (halfling), Meduuts (dwarf), Tudok (orc)

Expanded Domains: Air, Artifice, Earth, Exploration, Knowledge, Language, Rune

Portfolio: divination, history, knowledge, language, restoration, ruins, secrets

Knowledge (religion) DC 10:

God of knowledge both known and hidden, Orlag is beseeched by scholars, researchers, and archaeologists alike for blessings and insight. Known as the Keeper of Secrets and Archivist of the Gods, it is said that Orlag knows all that there is to be known and that no secrets can be kept from him.

     Orlag is most often portrayed in art as a weathered human male with a trimmed goatee and mustache in rough clothes suited for long digs. No temples or churches to Orlag exist, but every library, museum, and archaeological dig site has at least one alter for prayers.

Excerpt from A Treatise on Orc Faith, by Professor Yorin Argirus Brunton

            Most people believe the orcs to be savages that possess strange rites and occasionally sacrifice captured bandits to primal gods. I have found in my time living amongst one of the three remaining orc clans outside of the Hobgoblin Empire, that the common beliefs are both true and false.