One thing that made my homebrew campaign setting difficult for new players to get to grips with was the enormous number of gods, pantheons, and faiths that have accumulated in it over the years. This is my attempt to slim it down to a digestible one page. Re-focusing religion in the setting on the Lady of the White Way has also had the nice side-effect of returning to the feel of Gothic fiction.
Religion in the World Between The dominant religion in the World Between is the Church of the Lady of the White Way. In ages long past, the Church managed to convert many people of the World and largely eradicate the “pagan” religions that existed before its spread. However, despite its dominance, heretical sects and cults devoted to pagan deities and the Lady’s demonic foes (the Church sees little distinction between them) still persist and are occasionally the targets of the Church’s crusades and inquisitions.
The Lady of the White Way revered by the Church is a fierce, but nurturing, warrior-mother goddess, something akin to a cross between Mother Mary and Joan d’Arc. The Church also accords near demigod status to a number of saints—particularly those who were martyred. The structure of the Church is much like that of the Catholic Church of our own medieval past, save for the fact that it preaches the gospel of a feminine divinity rather than a male god. Due to the Church of the Lady’s matriarchal traditions, women are able to attain rank and power within its hierarchy.
The Church of the Lady has two separate and independent orthodoxies: the Western Tradition and the Eastern Tradition. The Western Tradition holds sway over Caligari, Midian, the Iron Principalities, Scarabae, the Shae Isles, and Ulverland; its spiritual head is Pope Sixteus IV, who oversees the Church of the Western Tradition from the Grand Cathedral in Scarabae. The Eastern Tradition predominates in Harrowfaust, Relmeenos and Frostreave; its spiritual leader is Pope Lorenza II, who oversees the Church of the Eastern Tradition from her palace in Muskav. The differences between the Western and Eastern Traditions are mostly matters of accepted ritual, liturgy, and governance.
There are persistent problems plaguing the Western Church. Scarabae is home to a heretical sect that gives equal reverence to a male counterpart to the Lady; this diety is referred to as “the Lord of Illumination” and the sect is known as the Cult of the Illuminated. In Ulverland there is a growing movement toward establishing an Ulverlandian Tradition independent from the oversight of Scarabae’s pope. The Church in the Shae Isles still wages spiritual war against pagan beliefs for the hearts and minds of the people. The Eastern Tradition has its problems as well; in Harrowfaust there are few clerics invested with divine power—it is believed that the proximity of so many unholy undead creatures may vie with the Lady’s dominion. Also, approximately half the barbaric tribes in the wild-lands of Frostreave have been converted to worship of the Lady; the remainder still worship their pagan gods of war, winter, and death. The Church in Relmeenos is particularly decadent.
The Ghael Isles has a unique religion that conflates the Western Tradition with the worship of spirits native to the Isles. This religion is viewed as suspect by most within the Church of the Lady, but has not yet been formally declared heretical. Although missionaries from the Western Tradition have managed to gain a foothold in the Island of Jade Mysteries, due to its isolation the primary forms of spirituality there are ancestor worship and the appeasement of various nature spirits. Similarly, though some tribes within the Scavenger Lands have been converted to the Eastern Tradition, most tribes still practice shamanism and the worship of primal World Spirits.
The Eastern Tradition is a small, and brutally oppressed, minority within Mord-Stavian. The main religion in that accursed desert land is the worship of a thousand death-gods; these gods are regarded as demons by the Church of the Lady. The deities worshiped in Mord-Stavian include beings such as The Flayed Maiden (goddess of muscle, bone, and gristle), the Dismembered One (god of crippling injury and disease), and the Carrion Marquis (god of war and rot).
