In the oldest account, Aulun measured a place for the world in the Outside, while Brum raised its first foundations and Sesh marked the boundary beyond which life could not continue.

The other gods arrived to govern distinct necessities and disputes. Their temples teach that the assembly formed by function, not affection, and that the gods' present distance is part of the world's design.

The world is a settled island in a vast, unlit expanse called the Outside.

Aulun holds its foundations in balance; the heavens are a high, cold vault, and the underworld is a country beyond the western threshold. The gods shaped the world, then withdrew to their separate stations. Their signs reach mortals as eclipses, dreams, seasons, and rare disruptions of natural law, not as constant intervention.

The gods are remote patrons, not dependable quest-givers.

Their temples are civic institutions, roadside sanctuaries, archives, courts, and burial grounds. Clergy disagree over doctrine, and signs are rare enough to invite interpretation. Mortal choices matter because divine attention is limited and often ambiguous.

The dead cross the dim River of Measure into the Hall of Uncounted Lamps, where Sesh weighs the shape of a life while Oruva keeps its memories from fading.

Most souls pass onward into quiet ancestral country; the exceptional are returned as omens, never as ordinary reincarnations. Kharvek's appointed guides sometimes lead the lost to the river, but none can compel Sesh's judgment.

Aulun's insistence that the world remain balanced frustrates Kharvek, who would remake it by force.

Zhalai and Brum dispute whether law should shelter the vulnerable or preserve the old order. Sesh guards the boundary of death against Qorzh's attempts to bargain with what has already been judged. Yeshara's revelations unsettle Galdun's careful secrecy, while Varka's storms repeatedly test Ilyor's fragile treaties.

The faith has no supreme pontiff.

Each temple maintains its own rites, while regional synods meet at equinoxes to settle calendars, public obligations, and disputes over shared sanctuaries. The Twelve Stations doctrine assigns each deity a distinct necessity, but admits that their powers overlap. Greater temples of Aulun and Sesh carry unusual authority in matters of measure and burial; local communities retain wide latitude in worship. Outsider Ilyor is acknowledged in some traditions and excluded in others.

A distant divine order leaves mortals responsible for the choices, institutions, and acts of care that shape their world.

Classical fantasy marked by solemn temples, old roads, distant gods, and rare, ambiguous signs.

Divine power is real but not reliably accessible; mortal history proceeds largely without direct intervention.

Varied: the assembly includes principled guardians, merciful mediators, self-serving powers, and dangerous adversaries.

Its divisions are ethical and political rather than a simple war between good and evil.