Fri Feb 27, 2004 10:20 am  
The Oerid War Gods

From the writings of Delmour Carzand, Pholtine Priest of Irongate:

In the dim mists of antiquity, the Oeridian hordes brought with them on their great trek across the Flanaess their twin war gods, Heironeous and Hextor. The two brothers, forever locked in an eternal struggle for the soul of the Oeridian people, were instrumental in driving them to first march across an entire continent to reach the ocean, and then to turn around and conquer the lands they had marched through on their drive to the sea, founding the greatest empire the modern Flanaess has known.

For the Oerids, and espically the Aerdi, one lord of war was not enough. For all of recorded history, and then back into the unknown times before that, the Oerids have been a warlike, agressive people. For them, two gods of war were needed, gods locked in an endless competition, forever driving their followers to struggle for dominance over the other. For most of history, this has never been a polarizing struggle, for it was not in the dominance of either god that drove the Oerids onward, it was the struggle itself. And it was this struggle which led the Oeridians to constantly hone their battle skills and press ever onwards.

This is best examplified in the Aerdi, for under their banners, followers and priests of both Hextor and Heironeous fought for the glory of the growing empire, each striving to comquer new lands and tribes, bringing them into the Imperial fold. It has been noted that Hextorians and Heironean followers would fight together (although not side-by-side) in these battles, which conquered Flan, Oerid, and Suel alike, bringing two-thirds of the continent rapidly under the rule of Rauxes. Even Aerdy's most prestigious knightly order, the Knights Protector, numbered warriors and priests of both faiths among it's members. While gods of weal and civilization were important to the Aerdi expansion, it was the blood and drive of the twin war gods which founded the Pax Aerdi, bringing peace to the land which lasted until 254 CY, when Ferrond broke from the Imperial fold.

It was from this moment that a dangerous polarization began to occur. It was in the rebellious province of Ferrond that the followers of Heironeous drew their strength. This bastion of the Heironean faith can still be seen today, in such groups as the Knights of the Holy Sheilding and in the visible presence of such noted Heironean followers as King Belvor IV of Furyondy. With the loss of such an important stronghold, a great blow was dealt to the Heironeans in Aerdy, both for the faithlessness of their bretheren, and for the number of good and just men who were now the enemy. While there were still a good number of Heironean followers and priests in Imperial Aerdy, the often delecate balance was disrupted.

The followers of Hextor, who were strongest in North Province, began to rise ascendent in Aerdy. Despite the loss of support from Nyrond during it's rebellion (for that province, once in the middle of the great Aerdi Imperium, had always been a moral battleground for the twin gods, and even today is still home to followers of both gods), the Heironeans suffered a far greater loss of support as many flocked to the banner of the rebellious branch of the Rax-Nyrond line, abandoning their empire. In fact, the rebellion of Nyrond proved to be a boon to the Hextorians, for Overking Portillian chose to aid them in saving their strongholds from the preditions of a barbarian invasion, rather than force the rebels back into the fold. It also removed large numbers of Pholtine priests (in the Theocracy of the Pale) from Imperial politics, leaving few to oppose the rise of the Hextorians

With the loss of much of Almor, and the rebellions of the Iron League states during the First Turmoil Between Crowns, the ascendency of the Hextorians became complete. The carnage of decades of warfare had left the militant Hextorians powerful, and most of the remaining Heironean followers had fled to the newly founded states of Irongate and Idee. Although there were still some followers of Heironeous clinging to Aerdy, they were insufficient to keep Ivid I from installing a Hextorian as the Holy Censor, handing the last clerical fief of Imperial Aerdy over to Hextor. And with the greatest victory of the Hextorians came their greatest failure.

The polarization of the faith in the war gods led Aerdy into a steep decline which proved impossible to pull out of. Although the Hextorians waxed strong, the empire had vanished. And, still, it continued to shrink. Provinces refused the orders of the Overking, paying, at best, lip service to the Naelax Overkings. Even the Holy Censor flirted with independence from Rauxes, openly defying the line that had let his god reign supreme. It was inevitable that Aerdy would either collapse into a Second Turmoil Between Crowns or completely disintegrate.

While the Hextorian faith enjoyed the near-total absence of it's rival, it was this absence which proved nearly fatal for Aerdy. For without the Heironeans to provide a constant check on them, the Hextorians grew fat and flushed with their power, and Aerdy grew weak and decrepid, more focused on struggles for what power and wealth remained than on rebuilding it's empire. It is perhaps telling that Aerdy's greatest victories in the Naelax era were the destruction of Almor and Medegia...one a weak puppet of Nyrond, the other the center of the rotting faith of Hextor that had already been conquered by a rag-tag Almorian cavalry that had fought it's way across South Province.

But the effects of the polarization were not limited to the Hextorians. In Ferrond, the ascendency of Heironeous led that land to build a small empire...and then did nothing to stop the shattering of that empire into a number of different states. Had this not happened, the rise of Iuz as a power in the north and the repeated sackings of the Shield Lands might have never happened. Had the Hextorians been present in Ferrond in numbers to actually provide a check to the Heironeans, perhaps aggressions and political conflicts which led to the rapid breakup of the little empire would have been instead channeld into continuing the ages-old rivalry between the war gods, strengthening the nation as it had strengthened the Oeridians in the past.