Pantheon Part 3

Hood - The Judge
Domain:  The Gates

    Hood is the universally respected god in all of Quake.  He was the first to ascend and his origin is unknown.  He is the ascendent that guards the gates of passage from life into death.  Hood is the god that the normal man swears by.  It is said that Hood's breath stalks each mortal and looks for its chance to whisk them away to the gates.  Few love Hood but all respect his presence.  His place is on the battlefield as he stalks the mortally wounded, and escorts souls to the gates.  He is the judge and propels men to their eternal destinations.  He is known to be emotionless and unbiased.  Each year there is a celebration of Hood in the city of Pail where the priests of Hood coat themselves in the blood of sacrificed animals and wonder about the city to remind the world that Hood waits for us all.  Many assassins pay him tribute and soldiers pray to him before battle.  Wives of soldiers and widows curse him. Rulers and kings respect him.  He is the one God that all must meet at one point provided they do not escape death through ascension.  Each mortal only hopes that he has not cursed Hood so much that he is dissatisfied with their soul approaching Hood's Gates.    

Letters From the Story Keeper

Softly, softly! Let's be silent!
    graves are growing here.
They were sown by our tormentors,
    green they grow fair.
Toward Ponary run roads aplenty,
    from Ponary not one.
Father's disappeared,
    and with him all our joy is gone.
             -Anonymous writer, found on the hills outside Barlon


    To help set background for our story we must first give background for our many characters.  These Bridgeburners that we will be following around came from horrific backgrounds themselves.  Each has a story that we will not go into today that started well before they knew each other or fought together.  The story I would like to tell is the story of their fist mission together.  Before they were know as Whiskey Jack's crew and before they tore the shifter citadel of Lep'hist down from the inside out they were sent to a small town along the northern shore of Lake Still named Barlon.
    The crashing of the waves, the glaring sun reflecting off the lake, the smell and taste of iron in the air, and the burning scent that can only be created form the mixing of bile, smoke, and smouldering flesh.  Whiskey Jack and his crew step down the hills that slope down to Lake Sill and Barlon.  Each man has seen his fair share of dead soldiers and blood stained battlefields but nothing compares with the sight of innocent blood spread by an out of control warren.  The power that came down upon this place still pulsates and gives headaches to them as they approach.  Men and woman's bodes have been crushed in on top of themselves.  Whatever happened here should never have been seen by mortal eyes.  The finger print of arcane power is clearly seen by the groves and scorch marks that where cut into the ground all about the fishing village.  But that was all after the attack.  The shifters that came in here did their job first, before one of them lost control.  Woman lay in the street.  Most of them raped and then strangled to death by the internals of the men gutted beside them.  Children and babies were strung up with large fishing hooks through the back of the head and left to hang and die on the sides of homes.  As they step into the streets of the town the power that the ground is till giving off tastes like sulfur and cinnamon in some sort of sick blend.  It burns the eyes and mouth.  Men have their skulls bashed in and women's faces are torn off by shifter claws.  The waves splash in red puddles along the shore.  War is nothing like it was supposed to be.  Few ever said that a man releases his bows when he dies.  Or that woman’s faces would still look of terror and screams even hours after death.  Nothing looks peaceful in slaughter.
    Up ahead is a man.  He is nailed to a wall by his hands, arms, feet, and knees.  He has no eyes, no tongue, no genitals, and no lower jaw.  Blood oozes from his wounds and his face is nothing but hanging bits of flesh.  Still he draws shallow breaths.  There is nothing you can do for him.  None of you can bring yourself to even kill him.  At times it is better to let a man just hang there and die in his own time.
    The center of town is covered in ash.  This is where the wizard lost control of his warren.   Even the ground has been burnt up here.  Rocks have been liked up by flames.  Hood's cursed breath smiles down on this place.  This is where he resides.  In the red waves.  This is the face of war in this wicked and godless world.  The worst part about it for each of them is that it is all to horrible to bring tears to their eyes or a desire for revenge.  They just wish it would all stop.


                                                                                                       -The Story Keeper

Pantheon part 2

Pathiel - The Guardian
Domain:  The Lost Forest

    Pathiel is one of the few God's that seems to play a major rule in the lives of the moral races.  It is believed that The Guardian is the ascended Wicken shaman Nether who was killed in battle and has yet to be reincarnated as a Wicken youth.  Pathiel has ascended and left behind all sense of gender, past memories, sense of person, and nearly all of his physical form.  It is commonly known that more then twenty great spirits rule under Pathiel and strive to keep peace between the mortal realm, the animal kingdom, and the fury of the most powerful elemental warrens.  He is responsible for the creation of the Elentas that are recognized around quake by their partial elemental nature.  Few if anyone in the mortal realm knows why Pathiel has allowed the creation of the Elentas but it is widely believed that they are a product of a treaty between Pathiel and the fabric of the elemental warrens themselves.  Pathiel has been seen wandering the open spaces of Quake as a mighty horse, a great hunting hound, or as a giant raven.  He is attributed with the bringing of crops in season, balance, the nomadic life, and communal living.
    The vast majority of Pahtiel's worshipers are the Wicken tribes of the great plains.  These nomadic (some would say barbaric) groups move from place to place in the great plain along Quake's south western border.  They are a unified force that few Quake armies would pick a fight with although they are split up into several tribes.  The Dog clan, Crow clan, and Crab clan are the most known clans although more then fifteen different clans exist.  Inside each clan also exists the cult of the boar.  These Wicken's do not worship or pay tribute to Pahiel but to one of his great spirits named Ostiel.  Ostiel is a renegade spirit that seeks ascension himself.  Although the boar cult is not honorable it is tolerated inside each other Wicken tribe. 
    Pathiel brings power to most all primal powered characters.  If they do not draw power from his warren directly then they most likely draw their power from one of the warrens that one of his great spirits protect.

Pantheon

Elrona - Goddess of Light
Domain:  The Abode

    Elrona is the goddess that plays the least of a role in the lives of the mortal races.  Most of her participation with the world has been through her Deva servants.  She is responsible for the casting down of the Ban.  The Deva's now only appear in the mortal realm to keep various demonic forces at bay.  It is believed the Elrona was a high priestess in the "order of the soul".  The order of the soul was a group of religious pacifists that lived in monasteries and studied the nature of light and darkness.  A high priestess named Hellena Oloran mysteriously disappeared during a decade long pilgrimage about the same time that it is believed Elrona took her seat in the Abode.  Because Elrona has so little involvement in the mortal realms and her devas know nothing about her previous life.  The rummer about Hellena is at best shrouded in unreliable ideals.