Old Gods/Summary
Old God Story Summary
The Old Gods are what humans call the divine beings that existed on Beluaterra (New World) long before the arrival of humans. They hold complete control over Beluaterra, but that's it. They created the 'monsters' or Children as we call them. Until the arrival of humans things were fairly peaceful on Beluaterra.
Then we came.
Long story short, monsters and humans are at war with the goal of complete extermination of the other side and control of the continent as the prize.
When the war started the monsters almost won right away. One of the Old Gods, the Dark Mistress, for some reason decided to help humanity survive. After we won the first fight people began to forget about the Old Gods, since they didn't say or do anything anyway.
Peasants didn't forget however, because they soon learned that those who did the proper rites and such weren't eaten when the monsters did a raid. (monsters figured they'd kill the non-believing humans first since they were clearly worse)
In the harsh and isolated land of Melhed the nobility re-learned of the Old Gods and realized that they were the key to winning control of Beluaterra from the monsters. So long as the Old Gods favoured the monsters humans could never truly win. Thus the nobility of Melhed fights to win the love of the Old Gods and steal favour from the monsters.
Summary of Important Points:
1)The Old Gods were not 'designed' by humans. - this is both important and confusing as it sets a clear tone for their personality and rites. The Old Gods were here before humans and monsters, like the land or the trees, they don't care if people worship them, and they act in ways we can't fully understand. They're supposed to be alien and strange, doing things that make little sense even compared to other religions, because those religions doubtlessly have gods that are linked to humans in some way. (Explained below)
2)The Old Gods are not human. - they may take human form if they feel like humouring us but that's not what they really look like and they have no names since they were around before there were things to name them. We choose to call them by various titles and symbols because it's easier for us humans to do so rather then describe them every time.
3)The Old Gods didn't create humans. - they created monsters, humans are imported. So don't suggest gods that deal with human things or a god that created humans, because whichever god/s are responsible for us live somewhere else. ;) We're just siding with the Old Gods because we realize that's how to win the war.
4)The Old Gods don't like humans. - with the exception of the Dark Mistress, the Old Gods either ignore us or hate us. They don't much care for our prayers, or our temples or if we even live; in fact before the Dark Mistress convinced them to test us they were just going to wipe out humanity and some of them are still trying to kill us! The whole idea is that humans are trying to make the gods like us by proving that we're better then their children because the Dark Mistress said that's how it works. (And there's probably a bunch of other stuff we don't get about their plan but hey, what do you expect?)
5)The Old Gods grant prayers retroactively. -which means by example that praying to the Wolf Lord for strength to win the battle is useless, but if you win, it's because he blessed you. Or if you get delayed in travel Emperor Bolten was displeased with you, or maybe just bored, offering a sacrifice to him does nothing . The reason for this approach is simple, the Gods clearly can't 'win' the game for us since then everyone would want them, so they help after the fact.
6)Monsters are varied and nightmarish. - We've really got no idea what the monsters are. There are no descriptions anywhere since the game itself doesn't state it clearly and as Tom's said, the game mechanics do the job of a GM, if it fits with the game then go right ahead. All we know is that the monsters are inhuman in all regards, they probably have multiple limbs, with big teeth and slime or none of those things. Heck maybe they have no body at all, or something even stranger. Key thing is that the monsters are united in their desire to destroy humans, but nothing says they have to be all the same, some could be large animals, or daemons, or who knows what. We just call them monsters because to us they look like stuff from our nightmares.
7)The Gods are arranged in groups of 3. - so if you want to suggest a god for the pantheon go ahead. All three of the present 'lesser gods' were created by different people and yet they fit together and thus are a set.
8)The Greater Gods are greater for a reason. -they hold sway over more spheres of influence and those spheres are usually more powerful. Overlap is probably not a good idea, but there should be plenty of stuff to have gods about.
