The Almighty

The Almighty is the chief diety of the Bastonian Pantheon, center of its worship, and primate of the Bastions of Heaven. The Bastonians hold that the true name of the Almighty is too holy to pronounce or record, and so refer to her by the cognomen alone. She is seen by the Bastonians to be a savior deity, in opposition to The Enemy, without whom they would be at his mercy. The Almighty's teachings have set the tone for the entire religion of the Bastonian Pantheon, and her direct intervention is said to be responsible for the creation of the vast majority of her fellow dieties within that Pantheon, the saints. The Almighty is a Neutral Good diety who grants access to the Good, Glory, Liberation, and Nobility domains. Her favoured weapon is a greatsword, and her symbol is a simple blazon shield of white. Doves and Lambs in particular are sacred to her.

History

The Almighty's teachings do not go into her origin, the origin of Ahren, the Bastonian People, or any of the cosmological constants. The teachings begin with an event called the Battle of the First Wall, wherein the Almighty personally lead a battle against The Enemy, who each pitted hosts of their own followers against each other. This is said to be foundational to the city of White Rock, which was created by rebels who had fled from The Enemy in the south.

After raising the first saints, San Lukas and San Heather, and leaving instructions for the formation of her church on Ahren, the Almighty retreated to her realm of Heaven, never again fully seen in Ahren, but present through her clergy and the elevation of subsequent saints.

Relationships

As their ultimate patron, all the good and neutral saints of the Bastonian Pantheon are on good terms with The Almighty, and the good saints share her realm with her, as vassals and lords over her domain. She is also on good terms with the various good dieties of other pantheons.

The Almighty considers herself at war with all Evil Dieties, regardless of origin or alignment. While rarely waging campaigns beyond the bounds of Heaven, she will fiercely defend that plane from any evil being, however major or minor. Quite naturally, chief among these beings is The Enemy, for whom she has a special hatred and against whom she routinely defends both heaven and Ahren from attack. Interestingly, an exception is the evil Saints of her own pantheon, who she constantly tries to court to her side, while simultaneously foiling their plans.

By comparison to this her alliances and relationships with neutral dieties are much more volatile, especially the Awakened One, who she seems to at once reject and respect.

Appearance

The Almighty has no fixed appearance, usually taking the form of a glowing, feminine, humanoid shape of white light, or a disembodied voice.

Realm

The Almighty's divine realm is The Bastion of Heaven, a fortified city in the plane of the same name, and its immediate celestial environs. Her personal residence is a shining golden tower at the heart of this realm, where she holds court with her Saints and surveys all the Cosmos.

Providence

The sudden ending of a famine, plague, natural disaster, or seige is sometimes seen as direct or indirect intervention by The Almighty, as is unseasonably mild weather. The Almighty frequently appears to her followers in dreams and visions, which is seen as a mark of particular favour for the recipient of such messages.

Servants

The Almighty values compassion and understanding above all things, and is said to have created the Angels, her divine servitor race, to fulfill the need for compassion and understanding in other realms, whether that be defense, healing, or council. Creatures of peculiar gentleness such as doves, lambs, rabbits, and so forth are held as sacred to her faith.

Unique Servants

Raffine the Voice

The herald of the Almighty is an alabaster-skinned, brass-haired angel who carries themselves with the bearing of the ruler of rulers, an epithet of the Almighty with whose voice she is said to speak. Raffine often appears richly dressed in the court dress of the region to which she has been sent, bearing an unadorned shield.

The Bastonian Church

The bastonian church is unified in the worship of The Almighty, which is observed by not just her direct followers, but even by those patronized by the other Saints of the Pantheon. The church teaches the performance of good works and the cultivation of compassion as the roadmap to ultimate salvation and an afterlife spent in Heaven.

Worshippers

All Bastonians worship the Almighty, and some worship her exclusively. Rank within the clergy is highly structured and determined by status and promotion from above, up to and including the primate of the religion, the Archbishop of Whiterock, who is said to be chosen each generation by the Almighty herself. Every community of any appreciable size within Bastonia will have a chapel, church, temple, or cathedral dedicated to her worship. In particular, the Royal Family tend to worship the Almighty to the exclusion of all others, as their bloodline is said to have been chosen by her specifically to rule.

Clergy

Priests of the Almighty wear cassocks, robes, skullcaps, and mozzetta that help to denote their rank and the liturgical season of the time based on their colour and design.

There are also a large number of lay and ordained religious, who do not have pastoral duties of care but often live in religious community focused entirely on worship - such friars and nuns are known for their simple habits of dress.

Temples & Shrines

Like much the rest of Bastonian architecture, temples and shrines to the Almighty are often masterworks of masonry or stonework, which in wealthy communities are often further embellished with stained glass and frescos, depicting a popular saint in the region or scenes from the sacred texts. Such structures are usually subdivided internally, with an area for public ceremony and worship (which is frequent) and an area for the sole use of the clergy and those who serve the clergy in liturgical preparation, and temple complexes almost always include an outbuilding or suite of rooms known as the rectory, where the priests serving a particular temple have residence.

Holy Texts

Dictated by the Almighty and recorded by an early saint, San Sylvester, The Rubrics are a collection of teachings laying out moral truisms through parable and historical allegory. The Rubrics usually comprise one dozen (or slightly more) volumes depending on the scribe who prepared them. Rubrical literacy is considered essential for all Bastonians, the vast majority of whom must rely on priests for access to the texts themselves or for public analysis through sermon.

Other holy texts, specifically useful for the religious, include the Liturgy of the Hours and the Order of Heaven, which set out the practical formulae of various rituals and observances.

Church History

The church and the state are intimately connected within Bastonia, with the state relying on the church for its legitimacy and the church relying on the state's realpolitikal power to stay in rule. The Almighty's church is considered coterminous with those of all other saints and is the only legally-permitted form of open worship within the Kingdom.

Holidays

The Almighty herself supplies only two occasions to the Bastonian calendar, being the Feast of the Triumph on the first day of summer, and the Day of Expiation, observed around the time of the Festival of the Turning Wheel - an Atarlie marking of the New Year. The Feast of the Triumph is a celebration of the traditional anniversary of the Almighty's victory over the Enemy at Whiterock, the foundation of her church, and the elevation of San Lukas and San Heather, making it the feature holiday of the entire Bastonian year. By contrast, the Day of Expiation is a pious holiday celebrated by apology and abasement before any and all you had wronged in the year before, and the swearing of various oaths or vows to improve in the year to come.

Favoured Animals

Lambs, Doves, and Rabbits, being creatures of particular gentleness, are all seen as sacred to the Almighty.