Time for research
It would appear that Baern has a connection to a religious scholar of some note, Oefa Granhelm.
One of the the books that Baern recovered from the redactionists in Ascension was by this luminary.
Before we went to Furlough (and all this madness started), Bearn and Oefa had a romantic trist. Of course, Oefa being of a noble house, this resulted in her parents being most upset. Indeed, these are the events that led to his being assigned to the Neflheim court.
In the intervening years, Oefa was not idle. 75 years after the fall, Oefa's studies into souls led her to conclude that the gods of Haven are responsible for the large number of undead present in Haven when compared to Furlough.
Her theory is that the pantheon is out of balance. The souls of good people are collected by the gods but those of evil beings are not. Since the soul cannot be destroyed, it finds a vessel and creates a "naturally" occurring undead. In comparison in Furlough, which has a more diverse pantheon, only undead created through rituals are found.
If "She who sleeps on roofs" is correct then the thought processes, personality, and very being of a deity are influenced by the souls that they collect. This is both what caused Peter Kovak to break into the existing Pantheon in Furlough and what forced him to destroy the Haven Tecera. In both cases, he was absorbing too wide a variety of souls.
It would appear that earlier worlds on the chain were lost because evil gods sided with the demons. Thus two experiments were tried: On Haven an all good pantheon was created (resulting in natural undead and the eventual ascension of an undead deity, the Lich Queen). On Furlough, monotheism was attempted (resulting in the splintering of the overstretch god)
We have finally had time to research the books we recovered from the redactionists.
Many of the more ancient books talk about old gods and their fight with the Primordials. These old gods are part of the basic creation myths of the universe. According to the books, the old gods lost to the Primordials and, in their defeat, split the universe into the current chain of universes. Thyey spread their essences across the new world and these essences have formed the nucleus of the new gods.
Kansul and his demon forces are the soldiers of the Primordials. However, where the Primordials wish to create and destroy in an endless cycle, the demons wish to destroy without creation. Thus they have been consuming world after world.
Angels and Devils both represent the soldiers on the sides of the old gods. Angels have turned away from directly fighting Kansul and instead work with the new deities to protect intelligent life. The devils continue their struggle, using whatever means necessary to win.
Thew new gods are not as powerful as the old gods. We have evidence that their essence can be collected (this collection from the previous worlds is what formed the basis of the energies used to uplift the current pantheon). However, if this collection does not occur, their essence dissipates. It is not clear if the energy is lost forever or if it will later coalesce on its own, forming a new proto-deity.
Upon fleeing to Haven, the scholars of the time believed that the god fragment that was here was that of a nature deity due to the lushness of the world. Given the drift of the Mother towards a feral, naturalistic stance, it may be that she is becoming aligned with the base alignment of Haven itself.
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