Spirits

Religion in Spheria is for the most part based around the worship of spirits. Many places and groups of people are believed to have a patron spirit: a family has a spirit, a forest has one or several spirits, a legendary sword has a spirit, a ship or crew has a spirit. Spherians hold that the goddess Spheria sacrificed herself to create the world, and the spirits are fragments of her great soul. Most Spherians acknowledge no other deities.

When patron spirit's domain increases, so does its power. A family's household spirit will become somewhat of a deity over several generations if the family has many children. The spirit of a village will become stronger and more influential as the village expands to a town, and then to a city.

While a lot (perhaps a majority) of beliefs revolving around spirits is speculative at best, it is known that they do exist in some form. Scholars and priests debate whether the spirits are creations of mortal thought, or if the spirits are created by some other force to guide and control the world. In any case, they are regarded more as abstract entities than incorporeal spirits.

Powerful supernatural beings such as celestials, fiends, and primordials exist and are sometimes worshipped as gods. Most often this takes the form of a religious devotion to a tyrannical ruler, thus the worship of such beings is most common among generally evil societies such as the firenewts. Some celestials permit mortals to worship them, but stress that living a good life is more important and admonish those who stray from this path.

Popular religion holds that there are two planes outside the material, where souls go after death: The Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia, and the Nine Hells of Baator. The archangel Zaphkiel and the archdevil Asmodeous rule these realms.

Of course, any student of magic or lifelong adventurer will tell you of other fantastical planes.

Notable Spirits

 * Big Tooth, the red dragon spirit of the Trubbles Tribe.
 * Elaphe, a black snake spirit from Brumia revered by Nix.
 * Esgran, wyvern spirit of her namesake.
 * Kujira, the spirit of a beached whale worshipped by the people of Monmouth.
 * Lesnis, the ram spirit of the Axebreaker Clan, who seemingly blessed the coral staff during the fight against the Sovereign.
 * Pretz, the spirit of the crew who takes the form of a Couatl (holy winged snake).