Hey Game Fans, we’re taking a look at some world building ideas and concepts for the home setting i run. If you’ve checked out my other world building articles, this is the setting that focuses on Lakeport and the larger world around it. Today i’m going to take a look at one of the more somber gods for the setting, Adelia, The Ladies of Nature. Before i get started on Adelia herself, let me give you a little background for the gods of this world.
Broadly speaking, the gods divide themselves into a variety of groupings and factions, but the grouping i am concerned about today is the old gods and the new gods. The Old gods predate one of the most important conflicts of the setting, the Fey War. These are the gods that originally found this world and shaped it to their designs and interests. They shaped the great forests and mountains, and populated the world with creatures in their own image. The first Gods to walk the world were the gods of Giantkind, the Fey themselves, and the three Elder Wyrms. A few other gods would appear after this first establishment, most notably Ahrimaius, the God of Creation. These are the Gods of antiquity, and they made the world the way it was, for good or for ill.
The Fey War began as internal issue between a small fey enclave and their neighbors. It spiraled out of control to a level of violence and bloodshed that would haunt the old places of the world forever. At the darkest point of the war, when the Me’Ah’Chin hordes looked ready to take the fight to the Gods themselves, the eldest of the Fey Gods, Grandfather Oak, cast the most powerful magic anyone had ever seen. He summoned heroes and champions from across time and space to the Garden where Oak had planted his first seeds. He made them a simple offer. If they would turn back the tide of darkness and save the world, he would bestow upon the seeds of godhood, and make them the new gods of the world.
Heroes to the end, most of these people died during the war to liberate the world. Heroes from thousands of worlds and cultures fought, bled, and died in a distant land to save it from the most terrible monsters they had ever encountered. When the last battle had been fought, and the dead tallied, less than fifty of the thousands of heroes and champions were still standing. A few would succumb to lingering injuries sustained in the war, and their number would be diminished even further by a tragic incident.
The survivors returned to the Garden, and Grandfather Oak kept his word. Each hero or champion became the living embodiment of an idea or a race. One by one, the new Gods and Goddesses organized themselves, and set about the work of trying to heal the lingering damage the war had caused. Some places were never completely healed, and there are distant parts of the world that still think that ancient war rages….but that’s a story for another time.
Adelia, The Bountiful Choir
History
Before the War, Adelia was a naturalist and a druid who spent her days travelling the world and studying the natural wonders that she found within it. She spent her carefree days learning the secrets of the stars, the night sky, and every other part of the natural world. Before she realized it, others had started to come to her, and begged to be taught this knowledge. She’d always been a gentle soul, and agreed to teach many the wonders of the world. Then the fateful call from Grandfather Oak came, and Adelia followed many of her students into the war.
During the War, Adelia avoided most of the battlefields and tried to find a way to end the threat the Me’Ah’Chin posed in a peaceful manner. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, or anything, and the concept of the war itself was repugnant to her. The two times she actually took to the battlefield, it was always to rescue one of her students, and both of those battles were pyrrhic victories for the good guys. After the last battle had been fought, and the dead were buried, Adelia had buried all of her students, and most of her friends. She had paid a heavy price for victory, and it shattered her mind.
After the War, Adelia vanished for a very long time. Even her companion Frand was nowhere to be found. Bannock searched far and wide until he finally found Adelia, at least part of her. The trauma that broken her mind interacted very strangely with the divine powers she was given, and each of her many fragments assumed dominion over part of the natural world. She is a thousand goddesses in one, and when they speak together, they are the force of nature.
Relations with Others
Adelia is perfectly capable of holding conversations with herself, and she seems to have a grand time of it. She’s close to the God of Magic, Frand, and Bannock, the God of Civilization. The other Gods and Goddesses maintain cordial relations, but tend to stay out of her way. She’s extremely unpredictable, and when she’s perturbed, she doesn’t care who’s in the way.
Relations with Servants
Some part of Adelia remembers the naturalist that she was before the war, and her servants are primarily responsible for observing and (in some rare cases) creating wonders of the natural world. They watch over places of natural beauty, and occasionally keep track of wild animals that have never been seen before. Her servants are spared her wrath, as she usually saves that for other members of the pantheon, or some unsuspecting mortal who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Relations with Mortals
Adelia is a Goddess with a tempestuous relationship with the mortal world. She is a goddess of natural disasters as much as she’s a goddess of natural bounty. Her clerics are naturalists as much as they are tenders of the land, and every temple of Adelia is filled with records, drawings, and other documents tracking the natural phenomena around the temple. There are shrines to specific aspects of her scattered all over the world, each tended by a cleric or an acolyte. Her temples and shrines are always found in living, natural surroundings that are shaped by the church elders or Adelia’s servants.
Unusual Sayings
“Wonder and Horror depend entirely on your perspective.” Adelia represents all aspects of nature, and the beauty of it can become horrific with a minor change in perspective.
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