Quartz 5

The Hindu Pantheon

Properties2
tagsreligion
aliasesThe Old Gods, The Brahman

3 min read

The Hindu Pantheon

The Hindu Pantheon, known in Thelemar as the Old Gods or the Brahman, is among the most ancient of faiths - and among the most diminished. A philosophy-centred religion of enlightenment and self-growth, the Old Gods make no claim to having created the present world; since The Collapse they have grown arrogant and neglectful, their doctrine thin and their clerics few.

Tenets

In this mythos, worshippers are born what they are, following absolutely in the profession of their forebears; those of higher standing are deeply respected. Magic-users are the most revered of all. All prayers are answered, provided the sacrifices are properly made - and if a prayer goes unanswered, it is held to mean the ritual was flawed and must be repeated until it is done right. Worshippers wear markings denoting the deity to whom they are bound.

Avatars

The Old Gods can appear as avatars - limited incarnations of themselves - and any number of avatars of any god may walk the world at once, each pursuing unrelated ends.

Deities of the Pantheon

Indra (the atmosphere, storms, and rain), Agni (fire and lightning), Kali (the Black Earth Mother, destruction), Rudra (lord of animals, the dead), Lakshmi (fortune), Surya (the sun), Ushas (the dawn), Varuna (order, protector of oaths), and Vishnu (mercy and light).

History - The Fall from Grace

In the priest Zanos’s telling - the orthodoxy of the present age - it was the Brahman’s own arrogance that doomed the old world. Calling themselves “Ultimate Reality,” they claimed to have made all things and demanded worship as creators, growing fat with overconfidence while neglecting their duty to guide and protect mortals. The price was The Collapse: magic turned on the world, monsters rose from the shadows, the Twisted Races were mutated into being, and the Seals of Hell shattered to loose demons, devils, and horrors. Where the Brahman failed, the Three Pantheons - Greek, Norse, and Egyptian - heard mortal prayers and rose to save the world.

The new gods have since confirmed the Old Gods are not fiends, and judge them no longer a threat; so they are suffered a small remnant of followers. To the orthodox, they survive only as a safety net - a harmless faith for the downtrodden to fall to, rather than something worse.

The Old God Monasteries

The Old Gods keep their distance from mortals, communing chiefly through meditation and through the leadership of their monasteries, whose hierarchies are famously labyrinthine. Each monastery is guarded by seven holy warriors called avatars - a different sense of the word than the gods’ own incarnations above. Notably, no single Brahman is hailed as king or queen of the pantheon - a fact later scholars find baffling, given that the Empire itself answered to one Emperor. The monastery of Kali is among the most infamous of these houses.

Appendix

Notes

  • Individual deity pages are deferred; this is a pantheon overview.

Sources & Attribution

  • Primary lore: content/General/Gods of Thelemar.md (Indian Pantheon) and content/Books/Fall From Grace.md (the Brahman / Old Gods), author TrueMichato.

Deities

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