Twilight of Empires

It all began with a stone. The legends do not explain where the Jewel came from, nor where it went. It just suddenly was, and the Darkness was banished; it is assumed that information gathered from demons is fictitious at best, and so far, very little of it matches. The Jewel is never portrayed as self aware: it simple was, and the world was all the better for it.

It is important to note that while sunlight is an issue for most forms of undead and creatures from the Darkness, it is Jewel Light that is considered the true form of holy illumination. The central feature of most Holy temples is a large self-luminous quartz crystal meant to represent the Jewel.

In most cases, we'll be referring to the gods by what they are the gods Of. This isn't to say they don't have names: they have many. However, it doesn't appear to matter if you are using the Elven or Mandarinate or even the First (dating back to the Divine Age) name for the god of Fire, your prayers still seem to work.

The Jewel spawned 108 gods into the world over the course of the Divine Age. The older gods can be generally grouped as the gods of Proper Nouns: Earth, Sky, Fire, Sea, Stars, and so forth. The younger gods are more the gods of Verbs: War, Justice, Love, Farming, Scholarship, etc. Then there is the one hundred and eighth god, the God of Endings, or the Unborn God. He's up in the Red Moon, which goes around Lunistria every eight days.

This category of being covers a wide range of entities that are supernatural forces of great power, but not gods. Divine servants, the ultra-high end Elemental Beings that adept class shamans invoke, a few of the most revered Emperors of the Mandarinate, and the First Ancestors of the Fang Empire fall into this category. Unlike the gods, it is possible to get a conversation with these, even if it only amounts to “Die mortal worm!”

The stuff the Jewel drove back at the beginning. Depending on your lore book, it is either another plane of existence, or out beyond the stars, or between them. It is where demons, devils, and the Outer Masters dwell. The first two groups seem focused on screwing up the Jewel's territory, and corrupting souls to bring back home with them. The Outer masters don't seem to care, and give the other natives of the Darkness the willies.

Different sects have different interpretations of the situation, but there are roughtly thee places your soul can go after your death.

First is the afterlife of Salvation, where nearly everyone wants to go, but rarely do. Peace, paradise, release from the cycle of rebirth, and all that. Generally, no one comes back form here, though there are a few souls who have chosen to do so, usually during exceptionally disastrous circumstances to tip things back in the direction of hope.

Next is the afterlife of Redemption. where everyone else ends up these days. It is here that your soul is judged for your actions in life, given an appropriate punishment to redeem your failures, and in time, sent back to be reborn and try again. It is here the Divine Servitors apparently dwell.

And last is the Darkness, the afterlife of Damnation. In the Divine and Slumbering eras, the gods would send the irredeemable out to spend eternity with (or be eaten by) the demons and devils. Since the Slumbering Era, no one appears to have been sent there: this seems to be a decision reserved to only the gods themselves. It is possible to have your soul taken there, usually as part of a Warlock's contract.