I thought I'd start a little series about the Gods in Aventuria, and who better to start with than Praios king of the gods and leader of the Twelvegods.
Praios is worshipped more or less everywhere on the continent of Aventuria, with notable exceptions being Thorwal (where he is mostly a symbol of oppression) and the peoples who were never part of the Bosparan Empire such as Fjarnings, Nivese or Mohas. There are also a few cultures who don't see Praios as the prime god. In Al'Anfa for example his role as king of the gods is replaced by Boron and the tulamids have potentially hundreds of gods (who are partly actual gods, demons or other entities).
The aspect of Order
The aspect of Order with Praios is pretty much the overarching Aspect of Praios encompassing all other aspects. Rule is an expression of Order, as are Truth and Justice. Even the more controversial aspect of Anti-magic is an expression of order from Praios' and his worshippers point of view, as magic only came into the world through an act against order.
The aspect of Rule
Praios gives the right to rule to the people he chooses, so the nobles of the Middenrealm would argue. They think that they have a god given right to rule over their serfs and have a duty to praios to uphold that right to rule with the duties that encompasses. As such many (but not all) blessed ones of Praios come from the ruling classes. The right to rule is also part of the Order of the world, there are those who rule and those who serve the rulers. That is the correct order of the world. (Or so the justification of some who rule could sound.)
The aspect of Truth
Where would the world end up if everyone lied? An unorderly, ungovernable mess where no justice could rule, only chaos and deceit. Seen like this, it is pretty obvious why Praios doesn't like lies and deceit. If there is no truth in the world, there is no order in the world, and Praios doesn't like that.
The aspect of Justice
Justice, similar to truth is necessary for the continued existance of a society. If there is no justice, if there is no consequence for crimes what is to stop people commiting them. If there are no consequences for people consorting with demons what would stop everyone from consorting with the most dangerous foes of the gods (it is debatable whether demons or the Nameless One are more dangerous to the gods and aventuria).
Anti-Magic
In the canon of the Twelvegods magic came into the world at the hands of the Goddess Mada. Mada felt sorry for the people of the world and wanted to give them the ability to controll their own destinies. So she brought the gift of magic to mortals. This Praios saw as an act of unorderliness and punished her by trapping her in a stone and setting that stone in the sky. From that story you can see why Praios has a dislike for magic, as Madas crime had irreversibly changed the order of the world.
Praios followers and worship of the Prime God
One of Praios' symbol is the sun (so much so, that the sun is sometimes called "Praios' Eye" by people in Aventuria) and as such worship of him is mostly conducted during the day during the hours where the Sun stands in important positions, like just after sunrise or midday when the sun has reached it's highest point in the sky. Temples of Praios are often richly decorated with gold and often have large windows to let in light. His followers are mostly more conservative than the followers of other gods, as they don't really like change all that much as any change has the ability to disrupt the order of things. That being said there is a spectrum of course, which you can easily see in the way some of his followers look at magic users. On the extreme end you have people who believe that any magic user should be killed for simply being born with the ability to use magic. Others think that magic users should try to get rid of their magic while more open minded worshippers of Praios would say that you can do good deeds with magic and people are not at fault for being born with it.
I hope you enjoyed my little write up and there should be more following.
I'd like to add some background to that.
For many players of The Dark Eye, Praios is one of the "joy kill" gods. Since one of his aspects is order and truth, he frowns upon things like lying or sneaking around. Breaking laws is a big no for his blessed ones, so no stealing or breaking and entering - in short, things that are fun! And since we have to stick to rules and laws in our every day life, that's something we don't really want to do when we play, too.
As the god of the aristocracy, a lot of players also don't like him because he stands for a rigid system of government. A lot, if not all,…