The Modern Athar

'Almighty Watashi' wrote:

The Atheists?

More like agnostics.

I'm actually doing their History first, since they have an important roll in the Pantheon War and the subsequent theological changes in the Multivesrse.

History, pt 1:
The Pantheon War marked a turning point in the history of the Lost. When Factol Hennar was given a written account of what transpired at the Divine Gathering which preceded the War, he immediately recognized that it was the key to the entire conflict. Hennar decided that to keep the journal a secret, even from other Defiers. He recognized that the best interest of his faction wasn't so much stopping the War (as the rank-and-file were focusing on) as permanently discrediting the powers that claimed divine status. Thus, Hennar had the journal sealed in a secret room inside the Faction's Meeting Hall, which sat adjacent to the base of the Spire. The location of this secret journal was passed from Factol to Factol, each waiting for the right moment to reveal to the Multiverse what the Pantheon War was really about.

The rank-and-file Lost, on the other hand, were actively engaged in sabotaging the war for both sides. The factotums were aware that the ferocity of the conflict was being powered by Prime worshippers who had been whipped into a spiritual frenzy. If the Athar could somehow convince these Primes to stop and think about what the war was really about, then the Powers would no longer be able to sustain the fighting. To this end, the Athar began sending members to the Primes to spread their philosophy against a background of mindless destruction. As the war continued, though, the potency of magic drained from the Multiverse, trapping many of these "Defier Missionaries" on the Prime they were sent to. Cut off from their bretheren, these Athar nevertheless found an important niche on prime sphere that had been devestated by the gods' war.

The moment of truth came in the seventh century of the War, following the Battle of Belierin. The sheer destructiveness of that battle prompted the Planar Lords of Elysium, known as the Heralds of Holiness, to personally commit to ending the conflict. One of the Heralds-Mikhail, the Prince of Angels-went to the Spire to find clues to the War's beginnings. When he reached the town of Foundation, he suspected that the Lost would have what he was looking for. The Factol he met with, Desmond Greer, intuited what The Archangel was looking for, and drove a hard bargain. Greer said that he would only reveal the origins of the conflict if the Heralds renounced any and all claims to divinity and mortal worship. Mikhail departed to consult the other Heralds. The next day, he returned. Factol Greer was shocked to hear that the Heralds of Holiness had agreed to his price.

Greer travelled to Elysium with Mikhail, where he disclosed the contents of the journal his faction was hiding for centuries. By some unknown means, the Heralds were able to verify the truth of the often-times sordid chronicles, and swiftly distributed it across creation. The embaressing revelations shattered the already beleageured War Effort on both sides. Seeing the Alliance and Triumvirate falter, the Planar Lords of every moral-ethical stripe ruthlessly and decicively brought the warring parties to heel. In less than a quarter-century after Factol Greer's meeting with Mikhail, the Pantheon War was over*.

To Be Continued

*Planar Historians point to 4 events which happened very close in time to each other as marking the end of the Pantheon War. First, the Virtues of Celestia created the Yetsirah Tribunal to hold the Dwarf and Egyptian pantheons accountable for the Green Fields Massacre. Second, the Battle of Mount Olympus ended with Zeus being cast into Gehenna for his "Crimes against Creation." Third, Set revealed his betrayal of the Alliance by swearing fealty to Asmodeus. Finally, the Yugoloths got back at Hades for peeling them throughout the war-his head was impaled on a pike outside of Khin-Oin, where it can still be found to this day.

I decided to incorperate many aspects of Dicefreaks' cosmology into the history of the Pantheon War (and, by extention, the rest of Urban Planescape). The full details of this merger, as well as my reasoning behind it, will be left for a later posting. Right now, I'll explain what this means for Elysium:

Talisid and his Companions are not Cosmic Entities. Instead they are the recognized leaders of the Guardinal race and are the most powerful individuals amongst their kind. As such, however, they still stand a few orders of magnitude beneath Deities and Cosmic Entities. On the Outer Planes, Cosmic Entities fall into 3 basic levels (lowest to highest): Planar Ego, Planar Elite, and Planar Lord. The Planar Lords that reside on Elysium are also called the Heralds of Holiness. This group came into existence in the early days of the Multiverse, and their most common forms are much closer to that of Aasimon than Guardinals.

One of the Heralds of Holiness is Mikhail (The Archangel, Herald of Battle, Prince of Angels, the Penetrating Light). He is the most pro-active of the Heralds, though aeons of existence have given him the patience to see through plans that would impress a Baern. Like the majority of Cosmic Entities, Mikhail decided to let the Pantheon War play out. The Battle of Belierin was the tipping point that prompted him to act. As for Talisid, he was put in the dead book early in the war for "getting in the way".

Of course, this means I need to revise my entries for modern Elysium

Part two of the not-so-brief history:

Meanwhile, the marooned Athar missionaries had adapted to their new homes on the Prime Material Plane. Thanks to their time living at the base of the Spire, they were more prepared than others to coping with the loss of magical energy throughout existence. In the final years of the war, fighting on the Primes was brought to a halt by those that had enough of the fighting. In some cases, this was exemplars from the Outer Planes. Other times, the Over-Power of a Prime Sphere banished the gods. On still other worlds, the fighting was halted by Prime Bloods (directly or indirectly motivated by the Lost). In each case, the Athar saw an opportunity to make their move. They began to aggresively denounce the deities in towns and cities on the war-afflicted Primes. What they offered in their place differed from Prime to Prime, but they all fit with the Defier's conception of what God really should be. The gabit succeeded, and Monotheism blossomed on the Prime Material Plane.

Back in the Outer Planes, the Athar returned to Sigil following the lifting of The Lady's edict. When they returned, the temple to Hades that had been built over the Shattered Temple had been turned into a brothel by Shemeska the Marauder. For the Lost, it was as good a use for the structure as any. What bothered them more was the rising influence of gods that either sat out the war or successfully played both sides of the conflict. These included members of the Chinese Pantheon, Indian Pantheon, and Baltic-Slavic Pantheon (now known as the Russian Pantheon). The Athar feared that the Multiverse might be missing the real lesson of the War.

To counter this threat, they began to collect artifacts of the war and testimonies from veterans and bystandards. One of the most ambitious projects was a prolonged exhibition to Acheron's second layer, where countless weapons of the Pantheon War (almost all non-functional) were recovered. When Sigil's new government began to relocate to the Clerk's Ward, the Athar purchased the Courthouse and transformed it into a museum to display their collection. While it was the target of multiple protests by various temples, the Pantheon War Museum was a hit with Cagers and visitors from across the Planes. Many of the most notable piece of artwork produced in the Age of Pain are on permanent display at the museum. Of course, the Athar used the museum to promote their view points, but from their perspective, the gods had done the promoting for them.

It was the beginning of the Revelationary Era, though, that showed to the faction the true extent of its success. As the first factories were opened in the Lower Ward, a new group of primes was beginning to migrate to the City of Doors. These primes sneered at the "idolatry" of the local temples, believed in a God inherently different from what most Planars worshipped, and for some reason recognized the Athar's symbol.

TBC

Since I'd rather not go back to my sleep-deprived outbursts, I'll just focus on the last part of your post:

I assume your asking about where monotheists who are also divine spellcasters get their spells. Believe it or not, this issue is addressed in the 3.0/3.5 Player's Handbook-a Cleric (or Paladin) had the option of following a general moral outlook (such as good, evil, etc.) instead of a particular deity. Even before this, the Athar were able to utilize divine spellcasting by drawing on what they called "The Great Unknown". According to the Athar, the gods were simply acting as a middle-man between wherever divine magic came from and the priests that worshipped them. The Athar contended that the priests were getting a bum deal, and those that wanted to use divine magic only needed their own sense of personal faith to draw on it.

I've got a GMAT to prepare for, so I won't have much time in the next two weeks to wrap up this history.