Pagans in Ofadin

The Pagan Traditions
Anyone who does not follow the Sevenfold Pantheon of Father Time and Mother Truth is considered a pagan. These fringe traditions, long since cast aside as superstition or relics of a darker age, were nearly extinct by the height of the Era of Crowns. The golden centuries of that age brought luxury, comfort, and complacency—little room remained for the gods of humility, caution, and respect for the world’s old power.   But with the arrival of the Downpour, that comfort shattered. Cities drowned, kings fell, and monsters surged from hidden places. In the wake of devastation, the old beliefs—once spoken only in hushed lullabies and drunken songs—crawled back into the light. An Untamed Pantheon   There are now countless local saints, deities, spirits, and ancestral myths—many unique to a single valley or bloodline. Among the most prominent are the deities of northern Ravreka, where nomadic tribes survive the endless snow beneath dense evergreen canopies. They whisper prayers to a celestial beast known only as Nonskis, the Insatiable One—a star-devouring wolf that prowls the northern sky. Offerings are made to stave off its hunger, which, if left unchecked, is said to blot out the sun itself.   Not all pagan deities embody such raw danger. Some are gods of craft and endurance, love and protection—but nearly all were born from struggle, shaped by a world of crumbling thrones, broken lineages, and monstrous wilderness. These gods were never meant to grant peace. They were meant to survive alongside you.   Forest Spirits and Forgotten Rites
  It is important not to mistake these pagan gods for the Forest Spirits. The latter are a world apart—strange, fey-like creatures that multiply in the wild, drawn to places where nature has reclaimed what civilization has lost. Their motives are obscure, sometimes benevolent, sometimes cruel, often both.   Yet the rites of old often blur the line between fey and divine. In the deepest reaches of Ofadin, the eldest hamlets and mountain enclaves still remember rituals meant to ease travel through dangerous land—from grounded habits like singing lullabies to the trees or offering bread to birds, to the truly bizarre; walking backward over hill passes, carrying a drop of sacrificial blood on every fingertip, or even whispering pledges to names never written down.     The Pagan Dead
  Those who follow the old ways do not entrust their souls to Son Forlorn, the god of death in the main pantheon. Instead, their dead are laid to rest according to their own rites, under the guidance of lesser-known deities. Their afterlives are hidden—unmapped, unspoken, and uncertain. Perhaps they go nowhere. Perhaps they are called home to the wild places.