The Divine Hierarchy

Either slain or never-born, the divinity of Athas is nothing more than a colossal gap which welcomes any charlatan or opportunist in with open arms. Despite the sheer volume of these would-be religions, the spark of true power is, as always, marked in the annals of the Red Age by the prayer worship of the common people.

In Red Age games in particular, the influence of divine magic is intentionally kept to a minimum, with a few notable exceptions (for example, the player characters, and templars). Many priests, when it comes down to it, are simply talented healers and spiritual guides, and not having any divine class to speak of at all.

Elementals generally do not lend their power to mortals, nor do they exactly possess the ability to intrinsically do such. Elementals, like mortals, are beings who are conceived, live, and perish. There are some ancient or immortal elementals, but these are more abstract creatures, made up of raw elemental energies (and being somewhat divine through this power). By and large, elemental is a term which can broadly describe not only peoples, or individual godlike beings, but also base beasts and creatures.

Finally, there are the eight drake princes, beings of elemental strength directly comparable to the defiling power of the dragon kings. The presence of the drakes princes is eerily concurrent with the eight elemental alignments of clerics, just as there are only so many orders of templar as there are dragon kings. The distinction is, the drakes princes appear to have no active interest in being worshipped or obeyed, and largely focus their terrible and potent attentions on their majestic and often dangerous elemental courts.

It is the occasion where an elemental court is formed which results in a true divine conduit to form out of elemental energies. A court's formation is a natural process, much like the formation of a city-state. The actual size of a court is typically much smaller - say, the size of a small village or settlement. Despite the size, a court unites such a confluence of energies that over time, it creates its own elemental identity.

It is the unique connection mortals touched by this presence have, which makes them a cleric. This is not some indoctrinated faith, but instead a raw possession of the energy identity of a given court. Many clerics do not fully understand the elemental energies they wield, or why. Usually, they turn out to be descendants of these unusual settlements, or in fact chosen and directly blessed by a drake prince.

Druids practice the only true religion present on Athas: the adulation of the world itself, in all its powerful, merciless glory. Over the years, druidry has evolved dutifully to match the world it inhabits. There is nothing the world can do wrong to the druidic doctrines. Certainly, this is one of the only things that is common amongst these many, many different druid ways.

Druids are by habit very hermit-like, not venturing forth from their bonded locations willingly unless compelled by very dire reasons. This has created a vast splintering in the knowledge, ability and objectives of this once prevalent practice. Some conclaves of druids seek the return of the Green, or even Blue Ages, or the creation of a new age. Others are content, and seek merely to achieve a unity with Athas and its ecologies. Some practice magic from ancient writ; some are taught by spiritual manifestations of the land; some come about what they know by pure visceral instinct.

Apart from the elemental hierarchy exists a network of spirits which all of these druids, in one way or another, commune with. Even in its ruin, Athas is a thriving place spiritually speaking, every natural, unshaped creature, geologic feature, or weather phenomenon is embodied by a reflection of Athas' great persona. Some spirits are more potent than others, or simply more interactive. Together with their soldiers, the druids, these spirits hatch plans and make their mysterious movements across the face of the world, going to the distant, unmapped frontiers and back on their grave pilgrimages.