Astrotheon
"The stars show us the constant eternal struggles of the gods. We would make well to note their positions, their victory there changes our world."
Divine Origins
In the early 2nd Age as the elves became more openly interactive with the other races, dwarves emerged from the underground, human civilizations became grand world players, and the many other races of the world began to brush shoulders, the faiths and religions of each culture and race similarly brushed shoulders. This caused many wars, fought between differing pantheons and slaying many thousands of gods as the pantheons clashed as their worshippers did.
This changed almost a full five hundred years later, when a cabal of powerful astromancers of elven, dwarven, and human decent looked into the night sky and noticed something for the first time. Typhon's Aurora. Realizing that the true gods were in the skies, these astromancers found as many unique planets, constellations, and heavenly bodies as possible. Pouring over notes, books, and consulting with priesthoods of major religions, each heavenly body was assigned a god. That god would then be merged as aliases of other gods seemingly at random based on similar histories and tales and purposes in their cosmologies. Then these gods were given universal names.
From this, the astromancers approached the many war weary nations and spoke out to them. That their new gods would be the ones devised by the astromancers. And as with most matters of faith, the gods morphed and shifted over time to conform. New battle lines were drawn, the gods developed, and the remaining gods became all the more powerful for it.
Cosmological Views
In the beginning, the Astrotheon were simply a twinkle in the eye of creation. First came the four elemental gods and the fey gods, whom created reality and the first peoples. The djinn and the fey. From these beings rose thousands of powerful beings who through their own willpower and determination became gods. First amongst them was Cronos, the god of time itself. Then simultaneously came Gaia, Typhon, and Sol. These three at first worked together to create a world and its peoples. Slowly however, these gods came to resent each other and came to blows. This devestating war nearly destroyed their new world and tore asunder reality. In order to maintain the order, the fey gods and the elemental gods manifested unto the world and gave up their omniscience. Partially seeing the error of their ways, Typhon and Sol organized the gods into their own personal armies. These armies would become the Politheon and Agriotheon. They chose to take their war into the stars, to avoid destroying all that exists. Since then, these two pantheons have been at war, with whomever wins reshaping the world entirely in their own image.
Worship
The majority of the known world (West of the Aegean Mountains and North of the Deep Red Desert) worship the Astrotheon. Those who don't are often more traditionalist elves, fey, a few mortals that worship other powerful beings, and powerful beings like dragons and oculars that self-worship or have a mild respect for the gods. How worship is done differs wildly between peoples but nevertheless, a general theme is present in all worship done. For example, worship of Sol always involves light shining upon his altar regardless of what culture is worshipping him.
In addition, each of the gods have a variety of aspects. These godly aspects are also called domains and are broad representations that are used for more specific worship. For example, Vena, has the Vengeful, Lover, and Mother aspects. These aspects shift between contexts and may even change the appearance of a god, but these appearance changes are largely those a god can perform themselves. Minerva, for example, in her Warrior aspect is heavily armored while in her Monarch aspect wears a flowing robe of rich fabrics.
Sects
The Astrotheon is divided into two sects. The Politheon and the Agriotheon.
The Politheon are generally known as the Gods of Order or the Gods of Civilization. They are gods that wish to build the world up and create new things, and shepard the advancement of the world towards order and lawfulness. The Agriotheon on the other hand are the Dark Gods, the Gods of Chaos, or the Gods of the Wild. They wish for things to remain as they are, decay into a state of wild and savage nature, violence, or all of the above. Many are gods of destruction and negative elements.
Founding Date
The Astrotheon was a system devised in the late 2nd Age, almost a thousand years ago.
Type
Religious, Pantheon
Subsidiary Organizations
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