Favor Of The Gods
Religion was a living and varied thing, spread out across the Nine Kingdoms in a multi-hued canvas of cultural interpretation and personal taste. Soldiers, gladiators and adventurers prayed to gods like Falkus, the dark god of close quarters combat, or Beruna, the bear-god of strength and might.
Merchants and sailors prayed to a variety of naval deities and demigods of luck and fortune. Kings honored the solar deities (often claiming descent from them in order to give legitimacy to their rule, not that anybody really believed it) and led grand processions paid for with no small amount of tax money through the major roadways of cities as they exhorted their people not to forget Father Sun in the sky above.
Monastics, Paladins and academic-philosophers meditated on and debated about the subject of the Skyfather, the primordial creator of all things and father of all the gods. His consort was Dae, the sacred Earthmother, whose gentle demeanor hid the great well-spring of power within her being.
These were the major deities, the names on the lips of everyone across the Nine Kingdoms and beyond. Local dialect and language barriers changed the pronunciation, but everyone understood the universality of these beings.
However, below these High Gods were a descending menagerie of lesser deities, demigods, mythological monsters and local spirits.
However, there is one last class of deities that requires mentioning here... The Illuminaries.
These are the various gods and goddesses of Art itself, deities of painting, poetry, dance, swordfighting, etc. Some of them crossed over into other area of expertise, but they all shared a base nature founded upon the noble tradition of art itself.
And chief among their adherents was the eccentric rabble of the Bards.
Indeed, traveling Bards made a point to stop by local shrines dedicated to one or more of the Illuminaries. These shrines were often attached to taverns and night-houses, places were Bards congregated naturally under the distant gaze of their patron deities. These were not the empty and forsaken shrines of other less remembered gods but areas along well-trodden roads where life and color could be found.
