In game terms, any character will know the names by which this pantheon is worshiped in their home area, as well as what each god covers and major holidays. However, more specific information will require a Religion skill check, and knowledge regarding how unfamiliar people worship the god will require training in Religion as well.

The God of Death (The Raven Queen, Llolth, The Black One, The Hunter in Darkness, Death)

Associated with corvids (ravens, crows, and the like), spiders, hyenas, and dark-robed figures, the god of death is typically portrayed as female or of unknown gender. For the most part this is not a god that is feared, particularly among the civilized races- in a world where undeath and soul-devouring creatures run rampant, the god of death is typically looked upon as a guardian or shepherd that ensures the dead will not be disturbed from their place in the afterlife. While some races, such as Hobgoblins and Halflings, tend to look at the god as eternally in pursuit or chasing after, others see the god as  simply present at the time of death, and otherwise absent.

Universally the priesthood handles the preparing of the dead for burial, whether this includes funerary rites or simply ensuring that the body is properly prepared to ward of necromantic magics. To some (again, particularly those who see death as something of an adversary) the god is also a threat to those who try to avoid dying, sending out assassins and creatures to ensure that every creature dies in their proper time, regardless of their feelings in the matter. Whether or not the god of death is associated with the afterlife also varies- to some, the god oversees all who die, providing a place for them in the next world. To others, the god is merely a shepherd, and gods you worship in life take over the governance of your soul once you have passed through this god’s domain.

Haor (Caerwyn, The Skyfather, The Watcher Above, Glimmaed)

The god of the sun is one of the more unique ones in that there are both good and evil aspects, something found in only a few gods. Among those people and places where water is scarce or plague is common, the god of the sun is often depicted as fickle, abusive, and vengeful. In some of these places the god can also be found associated with the undead, which is particularly unusual as other places associate the god with a hatred of undead. In either case, fire, heat, warmth, and light are the basic elements associated with the god, and gold is often linked to him or her as well. The female aspect is the more rare of the two, though it is most notable among the Halflings. In areas where winter drops below freezing temperatures, the onset of spring is often associated with this god, and is a cause for a great deal of celebration.

Eniad (Bephyln, The Forgefather, Iron Fang, Clangeddin)

The god of creation, generally also associated with knowledge and civilization. Evenly split between male and female gender, and occasionally viewed as two gods who work in harmony with one developing ideas and the other making them into reality. Often also associated with invention, engineering, and mining. The prominence this god has in a culture tends to be parallel with the importance of invention and knowledge in that society, although at times ‘creation’ is also thought of as the creation of the world, which can raise a god to prominence even if industry and creation are not highly respected in general. Fire, steel, forges, libraries, complex mechanisms, and cities as a whole are often symbols of this god.

Elven/Eladrin Cities

Elves and Eladrin tend to construct their cities together, although this is not always evident upon first arrival. Most people who visit an ‘elven’ city are struck by the scattered and at times extremely patchwork layout of the place. However, once the sun has set, it becomes far more evident that these are mixed cities, as the eladrin portion fades into view, shifting into existence as they move from the Feywild into the world, taking up spaces that had previously been left bare. These cities are typically divided up into three distinct portions. The first that is noticed by most travelers is the outer wall, which is made up of a wicker-like weave that appears deceptively fragile. This wall is in fact as strong as any wall of stone, being alchemically hardened to shrug off impacts and resist flame. This wall is typically very thick, and contains a maze-like array of corridors that are bewildering and difficult to distinguish from the rest of the wall thanks to the semi-open nature of the construction. This also serves to assist in the city’s defense, as the woven nature of the wall allows defenders to fire outward with little difficulty, while still benefiting a great deal from the cover the wall provides. The second portion is more conventional, being an array of buildings that lie scattered about across the ground. This is another area where travelers can get confused, as there’s rarely any true roads or similar paths; buildings appear to be scattered haphazardly. In addition the area will often seem overgrown with bushes, small trees, and flowering plants; in fact these are cultivated to help indicate what portion of the city a person is in- along with triangulation based on the massive forest that elven/eladrin cities are found in, it becomes easy for natives to locate any given place in the city. Finally, there are typically several tremendous trees that form the center of the city. While these trees are fairly typical of the deep forests that Corelleon has graced, they still defy all expectations, being massive enough that a fully-grown dragon could soar beneath their branches, and the trunks appear to stretch upwards forever. These trunks are home to spirals of platforms that in turn host the homes of elven and eladrin nobility. Not all of these areas are accessible during the day; due to the transient nature of eladrin portions of the city, areas can become cut off and isolated along the trunk until the evening hours, when connecting portions reappear. This is often seen as symbolizing the nobility’s wealth and influence; only they have the luxury of remaining indoors throughout the day, foregoing any sort of work.

Dwarven Settlements

There are typically two varieties of dwarven settlement: there are the ones that exist in the mountains, and there are the wayfortresses that are scattered throughout the flatlands. The former are typically more open than most people would believe: the dwarves find a suitable valley that’s surrounded on three sides, and then proceed to carve deep into the mountainsides. From these quarries they extract massive quantities of stone with which to wall off the entrance to the valley, and then proceed to go about the business of eliminating any major threats from wildlife in the area. By the time the area has been rendered safe, small villages have sprung up outside each of the quarries, which in turn grow to fill the center of the valley with farms and pastures. Because of the insular nature of these small villages, they often end up with the majority of the populace related to one another via blood or marriage, forming a clan. By the time these villages merge into a city, the quarries have been repurposed, turned into massive underground fortresses and storage vaults. Once fully established, these dwarven cities are highly defensible, although not necessarily the most convenient to navigate. Wayfortresses are something else entirely: these buildings (sometimes referred to derisively as ‘molehills’) form the most visible portion of the dwarven system of underground highways. These highways are entirely contained within stone halls, and allow for safe passage between any two wayfortresses (although not necessarily direct passage). The wayfortresses themselves are usually geometric in shape and have the majority of their mass underground. Typically a wayfortress consists of several floors, with the central portion reserved for travelers making their way down to the highways. Around the outer edge are the various businesses and homes that house the actual population of the fortress. Most notable are the large weights that sit near the top of the fortress: these massive stones are used in the event that a fortress is besieged, allowing the entire structure to be collapsed and sealing it off from the underground highways. This renders the capture of a wayfortress useless to any civilized race, and by extension goes a very long way to ensure they remain neutral ground.

Human Cities

If a city is found built in the middle of a desert, among icy wastes, inset into the side of a cliff or any other inhospitable location, it’s very likely that humans are the ones that built it. This is not to say that all human cities are found in hazardous or unwelcoming areas, only that they have a willingness to persevere and carve out something where other races would continue to move and find a better location. As equally diverse as the  surroundings is the style in which human cities are built. While other races will tend to construct their cities in fairly uniform manners, keeping certain design elements from one place to the next, humans are given to attempting something new or unique at each location. Their cities may be hubs of trade, near abundant resources, at an intersection of two or more roads, or simply spring up because someone settled there and others followed, like sediment building up into an island in a stream. They may be focused on a single skill or idea, or they may be haphazard affairs that are defined as much by the chaotic goings-on of their many inhabitants as anything else. And they have equally good chances of being either easily defensible or highly vulnerable to assault. In essence, if a city does not match the signature style of any other race, then it’s very likely to be a human city.