Category:Gods

The Kingdom of Clairmont worshiped a number of gods. The gods had different attributes, and different churches.

Beliefs
The people of the kingdom were polytheistic. The intensity and formality of worship varied widely, with some people centering their life around ceremony, and others remembering the gods only in distress and casual oaths.

There was no single state church, although some regions like the Marquisate of Avengene were being strongly dominated by one church.

People picked a particular god to follow based on their profession. For instance, warriors often worshiped Virtusar; and scholars Libraziera. Some were strongly influenced to worship a god based on their parents' faith, e.g. Mary Duffy, but even they occasionally rebelled.

People generally respected gods other than the one they worshiped. The Church of the Vindicator, however, deprecated and sometimes denounced other gods.

Churches
The churches maintained high degree of independence from each other. Some cooperated, and some were in conflict. A conflict between the church of the Vindicator and those of several other gods was a major contributor to the plot of The Chronicles of Rapina. It was not clear how much, if any, of the conflict was caused by divine will, and how much merely by ambitions and beliefs of the worshipers, and particularly of influential clergy.

See also specific articles on the Church of Mortaebius, Church of the Vindicator, and Church of Virtusar.

Gods and Their Aspects
The gods that had been mentioned, include There were also oaths by "Mother of all the gods", but it's not a clear whether any such goddess was actually believed to exist.. In fact most casual oaths were by unspecified "gods", as in "gods grant me a heavenly hoard o' booty".
 * Rom "the Righteous, god of light"
 * Libraziera "the goddess of wisom"
 * Mortaebius "god of the dead" (sometimes spelled "Mortabius")
 * Amorra "the goddess of love and lust" (sometimes spelled "Amora")
 * Vindicator "the god of justice and righteousness" (usually spelled "the vindicator")
 * GzishGthup "orc god of raiding rage" or "lord over killing and battle rage"
 * Virtusar "god of heroes, manliness and battle"
 * Nurtriste "goddess of agriculture"
 * Barraff "the god of commerce"

The following additional gods have been listed by the author in a forum, but not in the novel so far:
 * Vulpasar - (god) nature and the hunt (looks like a wolfman)
 * Thrimbler - The trickster, god of rogues

Another aspect of gods is the non-exclusive aspect of their power, at least in some cases. For instance, both Rom and the Vindicator seem to be gods of justice, and there were expressions such as "a god of healing" and "a god of justice called the vindicator." Clerical spells of healing were used by priests of Virtusar, Libraziera, and the Vindicator alike.

In addition, gods seemed to go out of favor, e.g. Rom seemed no longer worshiped at the time of Rapina's adventures; although the Church of the Vindicator seemed to have taken over that role.

Magical Power
It seemed that the gods had immense power, but rarely intervened directly. However, their clergy could use magical spells that relied on the assistance of their god. See also Magic.