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Ortho: Aorrus, one of the forgotten and outlawed gods

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Sun, 2005-12-25 14:42
#1
Gerzel
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Ortho: Aorrus, one of the forgotten and outlawed gods

Aorrus
"Speak, Shout or Scream what you like. Only a thought can ever be true."
Chaotic/(Good, Neutral, or Evil)
God of dreams, inspiration, and intoxication(as well as herbalism and medicine) outlawed on Ortho, with a semi-secret prescence on that prime and several strong cults found in the colonies of Ortho.

Aorrus manifests in many forms, taking on mixtures and features of different genders and different species. He, she or it is said never to appear the same way twice. The god's history with the Harmonium and Ortho is long and convoluted. Long before the Harmonium, Aorrus served as a mediator deity between the mortals and mortal world and the gods, as well as helping the gods communicate and to mediate disputes between each other. Indeed, Aorrus is in part responsible for bringing some of the inspiration to the first party that founded the Harmonium. He is also credited for a multitude of herbal remedies and folk cures that are widely used throughout Ortho. It is said that he was one of the first gods that was called for to be banned and one of the last to officially be banned outright. Compounding the problem are several partly successful attempts to convert worshipers and cults of Aorrus to a more lawful alignment. These attempts have left several ideas circulating throughout Ortho including the diety with the Old and New gods of the Harmonium. The god's present is subtlely woven in with the grain of the folkways of Ortho and is widely regarded as a troublesome stain, difficult to remove.

Writing Note: The influence of Aorrus is similar to the influence of Druidism on the Cristian faiths across Europe. Similar to why we have Cristmass trees, and other traditions which were originally Druidic and appropriated into the culture is how much of Aorrus's influence is felt. His few active worshipers and clerics would be treated much as witches would be in Cristian Europe. Publicly denounced but often sought when conventional means fail.

2nd Note: I am introducing my ideas for this god here because I am working on a couple of sites related to him.

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Sun, 2005-12-25 16:01
#2
Clueless
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Ortho: Aorrus, one of the forgotten and outlawed gods

Sounds like a variation on Dionysus - fairly neat, though I don't know how important he would be especially after a concentrated effort to remove the Lords of Chaos and any other minor deities like this one. The Harmonium influence is extremely potent (the populace truly believes, it's not that they patiently tolerate whatever religion of the week their rulers believe in), so the cult for him is guaranteed to be more underground than you've implied here - though that may be what you're working with and I'm just not reading it right. If you can spare some of those creative juices on some of the bigger holes in the setting I'd love to see those works too.

Sun, 2005-12-25 16:31
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Gerzel
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Ortho: Aorrus, one of the forgotten and outlawed gods

'Clueless' wrote:
Sounds like a variation on Dionysus - fairly neat, though I don't know how important he would be especially after a concentrated effort to remove the Lords of Chaos and any other minor deities like this one. The Harmonium influence is extremely potent (the populace truly believes, it's not that they patiently tolerate whatever religion of the week their rulers believe in), so the cult for him is guaranteed to be more underground than you've implied here - though that may be what you're working with and I'm just not reading it right. If you can spare some of those creative juices on some of the bigger holes in the setting I'd love to see those works too.

My interpretation is that the lords of harmony and chaos were instituted by the harmonium as they gained power. I m also assuming that the pantheon before the harmonium was similar to others, espeically through all the different nations ect. Also I am assuming that the Harmonium used a variety of tactics to spread across Ortho. Similar to Catholasism's spread some of the culture is outlawed and eraced and some is appropriated and changed. In fact seeing the Harmonium's ideal of harmony I find it highly unlikly that they would outright outlaw local customs immediately, even if they do involve worshiping chaotic dieties. Conversion of the plane would not be immediate, and if it was then it was far more through outright conquest and slaughter than I am seeing.

As to my juices and your holes you'll have to tell me where and what.

Sun, 2005-12-25 18:04
(Reply to #3) #4
Clueless
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Ortho: Aorrus, one of the forgotten and outlawed gods

... and knowing you personally - that last line is so much worse. Eye-wink I think Shemmy would get annoyed.

re: Lords

Rip and I did a few rounds of "Lords of Chaos and Law before, or after"? on the previous thread (You read through that right?) and I think we managed to settle on "Before". They were unlikely to be as strong before, allowing for other dieties to exist - a nature goddess, this dionysian fellow, and others - but they were preexisting. It's likely that the paladin that was part of the original Adventuring party was a paladin of one of other Lords of Law (though obviously NOT one of the Lord of Silence). After the Harmonium was founded they most certainly used varying techniques to try to draw people to the worship of the Lords of Order, or at least the belief in the Harmonium. (Philosophy and religion being very much Not the same thing.) And they almost certainly adapted the technique for their different environments...

re: conquering

But, in a good swaith of areas of this world - the conquering was actually just as bloody as you would think - Iathra was the beachfront for an Abyssal Lord. Thaera in particular was a center for the Lords of Chaos and other chaotic beings, reflected even in the bloodlines of the tiefers and assimars there now. The elves weren't exactly doing very 'nice and kind' things either and they were just utterly wiped out* (along with the gnomes but no one cares about the gnomes). The orcs and the beholders were already lawful and had something to gain from working with them so it wasn't as rough for them - so they likley had some of the 'kinder' approaches. The various approaches to conversion:

*Factol's Manifesto has a mention of those genocides specifically.

Asimiliation - like the real world St. Bridget
Adaptation - Saternalia becoming Christmas, or Zeus becoming Jupiter
Elimination - many Native American religions

Would have been used as befitted the situation faced - whichever was most effective. Unfortunately in Iathra - elimination of the Abyssal troups was required. In Thaera - it probably varied by how stubborn folks were.

re: holes and 'juices' so to speak

I'm wanting to give a bit of editorial guidance on the project, so we can make sure to get everything covered before we find ourselves with too much of something neat but not required and not enough of something critical. So don't take it the wrong way, I'm just herding the cats till we have enough to let folks run free:

Our biggest hole right now is determining the origin of the Schism - the LE vs LG split that occurs about 200 years roughly after the founding of the Harmonium. That's the big point that current Hardheads look at and go "Wow. Let's never do THAT again." The Schism was effectively a civil war that lasted about four years and was deeply personal for the populace. The going therory is that it has something to do with the temple alliance with the Harmonium - and the temples coming to a clash over dealings with Archon and with the Baatazu. The conflict of G vs E. Perhaps a spill over from some greater planar intrigue?

We know what the before was: the Harmonium was just getting deeper involved in the temples, and the temples weren't as formally organized yet into their relatively friendly - or at least willing to follow the same rulebook setup.

We know what the after was: the temples were mediated probably by some LN force into resolving their differences and coming to a way of agreeing - a concordance. (Details on that should be in the current version of the PDF that I have uploaded - I need to toss it out on the thread as well.)

What we don't know is what the original arguement was over, or the ins and outs of the intrigue and what produced the four year long Schism. The Schism was a testing point for the Harmonium where they found themselves falling away from their path and attacking themselves. Ultimately they came out stranger with a more solidified belief in the truth of the way. And the solidified belief of the temples with that - it's likely after the Schism there was a greater backing of the Harmonium as well.

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