Three Kingdoms of the Gods

Bel'Akoreth

The subjects of Bel'Akoreth are the most honest in the world; hiding among mortals they prefer the image of emptiness to a pretense-form, and among their own kind they walk freely in their true images. These are very varied, and each corresponds to a fine gradation of caste and rank: skittering and crawling things belong to the castes of peering-eyes and letter-bearers, small furry and scaly things belong to the castes of milksaps and shrinekeepers, upright and dexterous things belong to the castes of altarmen and house-angels. 

The nobles of Bel'Akoreth are the most egalitarian in the world; though they are as varied in form as their subjects they all uniformly wear the same image, that of a scarlet tiger. They enjoy nothing better than convening in councils and rough-hewn oratory halls, where they recline on slabs of marble carefully planed to the same hight and lick the same thin broth from golden platters.

Routinely the losing parties of debates are sent to serve the kingdom. Prowling through the jungles and alleys, they tend to the social order: for their subjects are ungrateful, and from ungratefulness comes dishonesty, and a dishonest society invites disorder. Each step of the pyramid must be as level as the plateau.

Azarelheveda

The angels of Azarelhaveda are the most pious in the world; they wear whichever images suit them but are always identifiable regardless by their incessant signs and prayers to the goddess for intervention in their daily matters. They are jealously dismissive of her mortal worshippers, whom they consider unlearned and superstitious, and persistently missionary in their interactions with the peoples of other kingdoms.

Their goddess is the oldest in the world; each successive heir dons the same divine images, learning under long tutelage all their exquisitely precise details of form and hue and sequence. These are not for show: imposters abound and Azarelheveda is already on her third dynasty of the century, although those keeping track would be quartered for heresy if found out. A trusted cast of angels learned in the divine images symbolically verify the goddess every 7 years to demonstrate her eternity; they are the source of most successful imposters.

The priesthood under the verifiers reflects in miniature the goddess; each rank and position corresponds to an intricate visual elaboration, which must always be maintained with great vigor and attested by the support of verifying clients from lower echelons.

Mount Azan

Centuries ago the pinnacle of Mount Azan fumed and shook and dusted away many human encrustations of the surrounding area. An enterprising band of spirits saw in this an opportunity to establish themselves on the site and gain control of the sacrifices the newly cowed and god-fearing mortals would make as they resettled the ashen, fertile land; in this however they miscalculated, for the mortals proved greatly reticent to return and did so only in limited numbers — the old trade-city leveled, commerce found other routes and stripped the region of its livelihood.

Starved, this new tribe took to stealing the deficit from the remaining locals and so extended their duress; for the mortals were confirmed in their suspicions of the mount's evil and sought ever more aid from the gods of their homelands in warding off the hauntings. Occupied with other crises of broader extent, however, these prayers were met with token investment by the concerned pantheons. Mount Azan, merely unified by the external pressure, entered by degrees into yet more hostile relations with the locals and thrived under this reputation as a gathering place for many outcast and criminal elements.

The spirits of the Mount in the present day are the most bellicose in the world; while encompassing every measure of variety a loose supremacy has emerged of those with true images of mortal proportions, for they have gained a predilection to the use of mortal arms and armour captured in their moon-hunts. The unluckier must crudely modify the metal carapaces to their own forms, and have done this less crudely with each passing generation. Bronze is a proud metal, and cleaves to its own image; when the hosts array in arms for the raid each warrior's form is thus laid bare, and the Azanids value this as a trust-bond and right of passage.