Recent uprising against some local small churches and
temples have brought to our attention that religion is not
seen as it truly is in the eyes of its own followers. It is
hard for believers to truly be one with their deities when
they are not expected to by their spiritual betters. These
problems cause the many difficulties holy establishment
which receive no government support have

Where did religion begin? How did it happen? How did they
all come to be, for we have a surplus of beings to follow
and to some more than one religion? The answer lies in the
prophets - the prophet is a person who by either unnatural
or psychotic forces has received a message, brought it to
the people with the promise of rewards for their belief and
the future revealing of a savior - a messiah.

We of the Reptisian lands divide our most important
religions into three, in relevance to each of the races
combining our people. The elves mostly follow Valeria, deity
of nature and Avestus, deity of time. It is widely known to
scholars and high ranked religious folk that each deity has
his avatar on the face of the earth in the shape of a
shrine. How it was found and how the prophet who found it
passed the message it brought on is how those religions
began.

The shrine of Avestus is said to have been the first to be
found by a traveler by the name of Mikhail. At the exact
center of the universe and at the top of a low mountain he
found a standing shrine of a man looking down at the land
below him. At his legs stood a large sundial which never
gave the time because of the long periods of dusk. It is
said the man was led to the shrine by a voice he heard
during his travels, and that once he arrived at the shrine
the same voice told him of his mission. When he returned to
his homeland he preached it to an uncaring crowd. Only when
a lightning struck the top of the clock tower and the lock
fell at his legs did the people begin following the word of
Avestus, which is to preserve history. His followers are
promised a place in heaven among their deity as watchers of
time.

On her mind stumping journeys through the land, Shira the
elven huntress was mapping vast forests. It said she one day
ventured into the correct forest. Within it, while cutting
through some vines, a panther or leopard jumped at her with
a great roar. After a few minutes of running away she did
not hear the roars, and stopped for air. Exactly where she
stopped, there appeared out of the dense leafage and vines a
large statue, as if it was never there to begin with and
landed there with the blink of the eye directly as she
stopped. The shrine was that of a young girl with slight
elven figures covered in stone sculpted vines and leaves;
Valeria. Shira returned to Ehnasia with words which promised
of peace and prosperity as long as they do not harm nature
and learn to live with it. Valeria promised to return to her
followers on the day of the apocalypse, on which she'll
reveal the true location of her shrine.

The humans, as fitting a large race with many different
opinions, have four major deities it follows. Rumors have it
that the human race has known of Haelena, goddess of the
hearth and healing, since its beginning. Haelena, in the
legends, created men. She gave birth to the first male and
female, and brought them to the elves to educate. Their two
suns had different opinions, and as the elder continued his
elven tutelage, the younger escaped to be taught by the
drow. They both count as the prophets of Haelena, for both
knew the location of her shrine since the moment of their
birth. But it was the elder son who preached about her
blessings to his human offspring. Her teachings say one who
trusts in her care will be given a second life after the
apocalypse, not in heaven but in a sacred location.

The two opposing gods, Aranos and Tomyra, have been said to
be entwined in one religion once. Their one human prophet,
long forgotten by history, was said to die a crazy
schizophrenic. They say he found both shrines sometime after
the birthing of humans, and for unknown reasons defied the
rules of his ancestor. He saw in Aranos and Tomyra, the
first the deity of time and the sun, the second deity of the
night and fertility, the joining of the male and female in
the human race, and wisely preached to many a listener of
their wish for the rejoining of all human kind as
independent from their elf and drow ''tutors''. But now, as
we all know, the shrines are in different locations, and the
religions are long since opposing. As for the followers of
Aranos that we've researched about, they claim He protects
them against the long periods of darkness in the world, and
is what opposes the unnatural darkness enough for it to turn
to light. As for the secret of their messiah and afterlife,
it is a deeply guarded secret.

During the first human-orc conflict, several human fanatics
arose above their peers in battle prowess. Rumors began to
spread that their power was not a natural gift, but
something more. Their greatest oppressor, Ghamid Bater,
thought it would do to ridicule them to make them seem like
tricksters, and not real soldiers. So he began preaching
that their prowess as the result of entrusting in a foul (or
so he thought) deity by the name of Parasades. He actually
did find the wayshrine of Parasades, god of Warriors,
Strength and Protection close to those of Avestus. He told
of a tall man standing among the ruins of an old building.
During the war, one of those said heroes has proven to be
the strongest and fastest of them all, and so made the only
hero of the conflict, said to be holding Parsades's will in
him. And so they began calling him the god's name.
Unfortunately, he got himself killed in a major battle,
managing to both die a soldier's death and martyr himself in
the eyes of all the warriors. The live ones returned to
their homes telling everyone of the new hero-god, and so a
religion was built around him. A bit was forgotten about his
hero status, and all warriors of all moral views call his
name entering combat, hoping them as well will die and be
accepted into his hall of dead warriors feasting in heaven,
waiting for the apocalypse when they shall be resurrected as
elite warriors.

The dwarves were a bit more secretive in our research, and
willingly let slip information only about their major deity
- Maephestus, God of the Hammer. Basically, they recall how
an old dwarf king was visited by a spirit sent by the god to
him bearing the word of his master and the gift of crafting
which we see in the dwarves' creation to this day. They did
not name this prophet-king, and did not describe much of his
return on the final day in this realm, however. So you are
left to find that on your own if you dare.