Religion

Each god or goddess of Dalaya holds a unique set of values and virtues which might loosely be referred to as religion. In most cases, the player may freely choose a patron deity from the Dalayan pantheon according to personal preference.

Most Dalayan deities can be sworn to via the Gods and Mortals quest. The exceptions are Gorzenath, Master of Fire in Azzerach, the Forsaken Realm and Malath; non-Paladin Taldorians are born into worship of the latter and thus comprise his only followers across all of Dalaya. Paladins and Shadowknights, due to the steadfast moral underpinnings of these classes, also come with pre-selected deities. They begin their adventure already pledged to Althuna and Marlow, respectively.

All other class and race combinations may pick a patron deity by trekking to the Island of Voices in the far western region of the Sea of Swords, where an array of ambassadors, or Voices, from each religion may be consulted. Pantheistic worship of all deities is represented by The Divine Light, though this will leave the player without a patron deity. Lastly, irreligion, or the Pariah lifestyle, is also a legitimate option among Dalayans and represents outright rejection of any and all worship of the Dalayan pantheon.

Note: Once the player settles on a patron deity, he or she may never pledge allegiance to any other deity; the only option is to cast off religion altogether by speaking with and pledging loyalty to the Pariah located on the same island. Followers of The Divine Light are bound by the same rules; their only alternative is to adopt the Pariah label.

Overview

The Pantheon

Deity	Plane	Deity description	Alignment	Alignment	Augment Quest	Holy Day
Gradalsh	Plane of Entropy	Destructive, entropic	Chaotic	Evil	A Plague for All Seasons	October 20th
Tarhyl	Tower of Tarhyl	Dominating, violent	Chaotic	Evil	Flames of Vengeance and Strife	June 1st
Sivyana	Towers of Agony	Vengeful, sadistic	Neutral	Evil	Prisoners for Sivyana	May 19th
Marlow	Plane of Nightmare	Manipulator, controller	Lawful	Evil	Daymare into Night	December 24th
Shojar	Azmaen, Heart of Frost	Schemer, warlord	Lawful	Evil	Shojar's Necklace and Augment	December 1st
Enthann	Plane of Valor	Martial, self-improving	Chaotic	Neutral	Enthann's Necklace and Augment	February 9th
Shiritri	Tasinath, Land of Bliss	Whimiscal, emotional	Chaotic	Neutral	Shiritri's Necklace and Augment	March 1st
Sihala	Plane of Earth	Balancing, systematic	Lawful	Neutral	Instincts and Intentions	September 1st
Malath	Haegra Malath	Orderly, conservative	Lawful	Neutral	Malath's Necklace and Augment	April 3rd
Tarhansar	Caverns of the Deep One	Defender, impulsive	Chaotic	Good	Tides of Blood	April 28th
Jayla	The Grand Library	Builder, rational	Neutral	Good	The High Price of Knowledge	August 7th
Althuna	City of Mercy	Healer, just	Lawful	Good	Roses of Judgment	July 12th

Other

Theology	Plane	Deity description	Alignment	Alignment	Augment Quest	Holy Day
The Divine Light	None	Worship of the pantheon as a whole	n/a	n/a	None	January 15th
Pariah	None	Rejection of all deities	n/a	n/a	The Faith of a Godless Man	November 9th

Benefits & Restrictions

Benefits

Players sworn to The Divine Light or The Pariah will incur a set +15% bonus to their Specializations; they are not bound to adhere to any set Alignment. Those sworn to a singular deity may incur between -20% and +20% bonus, depending on how closely their Alignment matches that of their patron deity.

Followers of a specific deity will also be given the means to teleport at any time to that deity's home plane via a Gate Neck, such as an Amulet of Althuna. Some planes offer convenient amenities for the follower, ranging from a banker to a portal that leads back to mainland Dalaya. Many deities also offer exclusive quests that yield deity augments of varying strength.

Restrictions

Deities have impeccable memories. If the player kills a creature protected by a deity prior to settling on a faith, the deity in question will reject that player forever and will not under any circumstances admit him or her as a follower. For example, if a Dwarven Warrior takes part in a raid on Shiritri's home plane, Shiritri will mark the Dwarf as a traitor forevermore; the Voice of Shiritri on the Island of Voices and all creatures under the goddess's protection will treat the Dwarf with hostility from then on.

A player sworn to a certain faith can neither harm nor loot NPCs of that faith and will be unable to lend any aid whatsoever, including buffs, heals, and resurrections, to anyone currently fighting NPCs of that faith.

Factions of the Heartland

You will be able to join any faction group, even if your character's alignment is in opposition to the alignment of the faction you are attempting to join. Factions have quests that can be an excellent way to boost alignment with your deity, if chosen appropriately.

Faction	Alignment
Council of Innovation	GOOD
Order of the Blackscale	EVIL
Silver Crown Trading Company	LAWFUL

Specialization bonus

When sworn to the Divine Light or as a Pariah, you will gain a 15% flat bonus to all your specializations. When sworn to a different deity, you will gain a bonus or penalty depending on how in sync your alignment is with that of your deity - if your deity is LAWFUL EVIL, the more lawful and evil points you rack up, the bigger the bonus and the more good and chaotic points you rack up, the bigger the penalty. Paladins, Shadowknights and Taldorians are not in any way special here - their bonuses and penalties work exactly like those of any other worshiper of their pre-chosen deities. This bonus/penalty is between +20 to -20% for all gods of any alignment. However the neutral part matters much less than the non-neutral part does. This is to prevent people from getting a 10%+ bonus right out the door by pledging before they have any real alignment.

If you are completely neutral and completely good and your god is Jayla, then you get:

5% spec for NEUTRAL

15% spec for GOOD

If you were completely lawful and completely good and had Althuna:

10% spec for LAWFUL

10% spec for GOOD

As long as your alignment is NEUTRAL in the area where your god wants you to be NEUTRAL, you will always get the +5% bonus even if you are close to EVIL/GOOD or CHAOTIC/LAWFUL as long as you don't tip over into those areas.

"Completely" means +100 towards either side, not that you only have good or evil points. If you have 150 good and 50 evil points you are +100 to good and "completely" aligned.

The max is 65535; anything more than that and you'd roll over to 0.