The One

[PPQ_Purple]

How much do the races of Erebus know about the One.
The guy who created the gods and all.

Is it common knowledge? Is it a secret?

 

[Zugvogel]

As far as I know, only the Luonnotar (Sp?) know of the One's existence. However, this "knowledge" is more of a lucky guess, perhaps enhanced by some hints from Cassiel.

 

[Valkrionn]

Cassiel would never hint at it. It is entirely just them guessing.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

No mortal really knows about The One.

The Luonnatar preach of The One, but almost no one believes them. They are condemned as blasphemers in every empire they enter, except among the Grigori where blasphemy is not a crime. They are not well liked even there though.

As far as we can tell, the Luonnatar have no evidence or reliable testimony, but simply made a very lucky guess. I suppose it could be possible that Nemed revealed the information so some of his children, but it is more likely that he has been imprisoned and tortured by Os-Gabella in the Bair of Lacuna since long before the movement was born. Junil for one fears that The One may have chosen to reveal himself personally to the Luonnatar, and is terrified by the prospect as the only reason he can think of that he would not have been personally contacted first is if his maker is greatly displeased with his actions.

 

[Verdian]

I don't believe the arch-angels, such as Cassiel, even know about the One. Only the original gods and Os-Gabela know of Him. I don't recall why, but the gods decided not to tell their creations.

 

[Valkrionn]

IIRC, those who were there for the signing of the compact (should be most if not all Arch-Angels) know.

 

[Kael]

The gods haven't told their creations about the One because the One has withdrawn from creation. The good and neutral gods respect the One's separation by keeping the One separate in every way. The evil gods have no desire to admit there is a power greater than them.

Os-Gabella and Anesidora were both alive when the One entered creation. None of the archangels were.

In the D&D game none of the players knew about the One. In one campaign they hard from the Luonnotar (a crazed cult form their perspective) who claimed that the gods weren't gods and there was another being that created the gods. The players reacted to them much as you would expect, the party had clerics and had been witness to countless miracles, they assumed the Luonnotar were crazy. But they were there when the priest called down the pillar of flame and it didn't harm the Luonnotar, which was a source for a lot of conjecture and rumors.

But in the D&D games that was the typical sort of city activity that was always going on around the actual adventurers. It wasn't the focus of the story, just part of living in a place that was full of its own characters, events and intrigue. They didn't spend much time thinking about it.

 

[Passer2000]

Who are Luonnotar and Anesidora? I can't find them in the civilopedia.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

They are both in the pedia. For Anesidora, you need to look for the Mammon Cycle, I'm not sure what entry exactly.


The Luonnatar are Grigori Druid UUs and have their own pedia entry. More importantly a religion devoted to the worship of only The One.

Anesidora was the second wife of Nemed, created after Gabella refused to submit to her husband. Anesidora was given much weaker gifts than Gabella, so that the strength of every precept in her would not clash and create such inner turmoil. She was an gentle as Gabella was harsh. She was given an immortal soul but a mortal body, which were passed on to all her descendants, including Humans, Elves, Orcs, and Aifons. As she does not have a divine spark descended from a gos and thus indirectly from The One, the ages since her death have been hard on her soul.



While the wives of Nemed may have been alive when The One last interred creation so as to stop Gabella's rape by Aeron, it is far from clear that either of them saw him or had any understanding of what was happening at the time.

 

[A Moon]

In regards to how the Luonatar heard of The One, I thought it might be related to how the first 6 or so stages of the Altar are built by Great Prophets. I'm not sure what a makes a Great Prophet... Well, "Great", but I guessed that there was something, some weird kink of divine magic (Divine magic is magic from the Gods, right? And they were created so by The One, so prehaps a quantum trace of Him is present in them, and a (impossibly) smaller trace of that trace in their creations) that did something funny, one of those weird one-in-a-million chances that absolutely no-one, not even the Gods themselves (Perhaps excluding The One. Even Omniscience has its limits. (Okay, no it doesn't. But still.)) foresaw, and gave a Prophet's thought process a little poke in the right direction, and when one or two people believed his/her rantings, the seeds of the Lounatar were planted.

Well, that, or someone once got seriously drunk, turned to his best friend, and said "Hey man, what if..."

 

[loocas]

Who are Luonnotar and Anesidora? I can't find them in the civilopedia.

You'll find the documents in these two threads helpful, if you haven't seen them already:

Bestiary of Erebus
Lore Compendium

 

[IronClaymore]

Junil for one fears that The One may have chosen to reveal himself personally to the Luonnatar, and is terrified by the prospect as the only reason he can think of that he would not have been personally contacted first is if his maker is greatly displeased with his actions.

So he should be. If Junil has ever played in the Forgotten Realms setting for D&D he'd know about their equivalent overgod deciding to mix it up a little, much to the detriment of the normal deities, during the godswar.

For those who are unfamiliar:

Spoiler :

During the godswar the previously unknown overgod decides the normal gods have been lazy in their duties, and forces them all (except for one guy; Helm - the god of order/justice) onto the mortal plane for a while with most of their powers unavailable. Obviously, the result is a bunch of awesome duels and gods getting kicked down to size by adventuring parties.

Aside from the creation of the universe, this war is the only proof that the overgod really exists at all.

In FFH, the mortal population isn't even this lucky. However, think of our reality - why do people believe in god here? Inhabitants of Erebus may know or suspect that the current batch of deities are not nearly powerful enough to create such an existence. And where did these dudes come from anyway?


:fake edit: Does Junil play D&D? I bet if he did, he'd have a flamboyantly chaotic evil halfling rogue/bard. It's always the straight ones who play such characters