Theology of the Overarch

The Overarch is widely known as a collective 'creation story', shared world-wide, but is technically less 'encompassing' than the name implies.   The gods can manifest, though they primarily exist conceptually, and are celebrated in various ways in various regions. In some areas, Malora (Or Malorne, M'Larno, Malady, etc.) is venerated as a womanly fertility goddess that blesses crops and causes life to flourish, and in another, may be viewed as a thin ragged leper dwarf, spreading disease, mold, and tumors wherever they go, massive blisters bursting from their face.   The planar structure is represented typically by an eye-shape, as an arch that is reflected. The top half is the Overarch (or the Ethric), the bottom being the Umbralarch (or the Umbral). The left and right tips are Chaos and Order.   Before anything 'existed', there was Chaos, Order, Ethric, and Umbral. Chaos represented change. Order is law and rule. Ethric and Umbral, the energy and the absence. These concepts began to intermingle over time, creating. The elements sprang forth from Chaos, a vortex of earth, air, fire and water, eventually split apart by Order. Ethric and Umbral began to take the elements and form them, creating hundreds of planes, every plane ruled by a pantheon of gods, and filled.   The planes were carefully placed, each drawing power from the nearest concepts, warped and molded by them.   As the planes grew and expanded, they began to leech onto each other, overlapping and stealing power from one another. Chaos grew powerful, and Order took action, drawing up powerful energy from the Ethric and shaping it with the Umbral, creating the Prime Plane (and magic in general) as a method of creating a ward, preventing the planes from crossing into each other and overlapping. As a result, the Prime Plane is frequently the source of incursions by other planes. While this happened, the split between planes created unimaginable void, devoid of life. The Umbral drew on Chaos, filling the void with aberrations and twisted beings. This became The Abyss, and homes untold legions of eldritch horrors, tentacled monstrosities, and the like.   The Feywilds and Shadowfell were also created in the process, one a chaotic wild realm full of life and magic, the other a twisted reflection of the Prime Plane, largely devoid of life, blighted and cursed. Each function as a filter between the two Arches and the Prime Plane.