5001-HârnWorld/3rd Edition/31

Some 600 years ago, the basic metaphysical beliefs were collected by Nala-Uroh of Elkall- Anuz into a single tome called the Libram of the Pantheon. Uroh based his efforts on earlier works, few of which seem to have survived. The Libram has since received the approval of most churches in that they teach the same story of creation to their followers.

The Natal Wars
First, Uroh writes, there was universal chaos; time and space had no meaning, reality was not fixed. From this arose the First Gods, who were the only beings able to stand against the chaos. These beings were principles of power rather than conventional gods. They made war upon each other, threatening to destroy the cosmos. One result of the wars was the creation of the Lesser Gods to serve the First Gods and do battle on their behalf. It is these lesser gods who are now worshiped.

Finally, when it became apparent that the war threatened the existence of Kelestia, the First Gods made peace. Each was to have his own realm and to participate in the government of the whole. This peace resulted in Kelestia taking more or less its present form.

The Concordat of the Illimitable Tome
But the peace was not permanent. The Lesser Gods, released from service, began to battle each other and chaos again prevailed. In the course of these wars, many new races and creatures, the sapient mortals among them, were created under various compulsions to serve the gods.

The Lesser Gods were able to reproduce but they were not invulnerable and could slay each other. After many had been destroyed, the survivors entered into the Ke’lha-Hy-Var-Hyvrak, or Concordat of the Illimitable Tome. The Concordat created laws to govern the ways in which the gods could intervene in the affairs of mortals and compete for supremacy.

Just as the Lesser Gods had engaged in a struggle for supremacy after the peace of the First Gods, so now did the mortals. Originally allowed free access to knowledge, it soon became apparent to the gods that the mortal creatures lacked the wisdom to control this ultimate power. Hence, the gods chose one among themselves, Save-K’nor, to maintain the Var-Hyvrak (the Illimitable Tome), wherein would be written all knowledge. Only mortals with the wit to discover this knowledge by themselves could know it.

The complexity of these divine laws is cited as the main reason that the ways of gods are often inexplicable to men. When a deity intercedes to aid an impious scoundrel after denying the pleas of a loyal saint, observers may well shrug their shoulders and say, “’tis the Concordat and not the will of the god.”

THE GODS OF HÂRN
The inhabitants of Hârn and most of Lythia are pantheistic; they believe in the existence of ten major (and hundreds of minor) deities, but most worship only one of these.

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