Most religions known to Black Steel personnel revolve around the worship and propitiation of members of an ancient pantheon. Mythologies differ from one church to another, but most assert a kinship between the various powers of the pantheon, and that the sentient beings of the world are descended from certain of its members (usually Thesmos and Woen in the role of mother and father). There are significant exceptions to all of this however; Black Steel personnel know of no myths that deal with the creation of dragons or of dwarves, and there exist known religions with their own theologies, mythologies, or both, that have little or nothing to do with the world's dominant pantheon.
The very existence of a "dominant pantheon" is a matter of some debate, and based mainly on the similarities between certain world faiths. For instance, the worship of Great Mother on the Grat'han coastal plains is so similar to that of Thesmos (so named the Eastport trade language is dominant) that some Grat'han tribes have come to call their Great Spirits by pantheonic names. Nevertheless, the overlap in mythology and ceremony from place to place is by no means complete. Many of the rituals used to call upon "miraculous" sorcerous intervention bear striking similarities to one another between worshipers of pantheon members with similar realms of influence but different names, but these similarities might be the result of the method by which the sorcerous effects in question propogate between the sorcerous and natural worlds rather than because the entities being worshiped are the same; some believe that, far from being the same set of entities worshiped differently across numerous cultures, the members of the pantheon do not exist at all, but are rather inventions of the human imagination to make as-yet little-understood forces in the sorcerous world seem comprehensible and familiar to the human mind. This theory, and a numbr of others that assume a separate object of worship exists for each of the many seeming-similar religions across the world, may be supported by the many mythological differences between similar religions in different regions, the varying names of the members of the pantheon, and their differing roles; for instance, many Grat'han religions feature aspects of animism or ancestor worship not normally associated with the pantheonic religions, and one of the major figures in the most common Grat'han pantheon is War Spirit, a figure who appears to combine aspects of the roles of Darzien, Matorath, Vamakhel, Varekh, and perhaps Sylthos, none of whom have a separate analog in these Grat'han spirit faiths.
Responses among those who believe in a literal, extant pantheon vary; some believe that members of the pantheon accept worship under any name, so long as it is done properly and with true heart, and therefore that (for instance) Darzien might accept prayers offered to War Spirit so long as they are of a kind appropriate to him. Others argue that the battle within the pantheon for ever-greater realms is being played out among their worshipers, such that (for instance) Matorath, under the name of War Spirit, might through some of his Grat'han worshipers be seeking to extend his realm deeper into what is presently Darzien's. Still other scholars are of the opinon that the members of the pantheon, though real, are not able to attend to every mortal prayer or even every congregation of mortal worshipers, and as such have worked upon the landsape of the sorcerous world so as to cause it to create "spells" in response to proper mental and ritual action closely associated with their worship. At all events, whether because of the similarities between their rituals and codes of behavior, because they are in fact worshiping the same literal being, or for some other reason entirely, most worshipers of the pantheon best known along the Fire Coast accept other, similar figures from the Broken Sea region, Grat'ha, and elsewhere, including goblinoid and elven pantheons, essentially as different aspects of or approaches to their own, a feeling that appears to be reciprocated, though it rarely does much to ease strife between the worshipers of the various "aspects" when it exists; disagreements over the "right way" to worship can grow as heated and as dangerous as those over who or what most deserves worship in the first place.
It is important to note that the mythology of the pantheon is ongoing; hatred or alliance between two powers (naturally reflected in their churches -- or resulting from changes in their churches' relationships, depending on what you believe about the pantheon as a whole) changes in the course of their present and continuing struggle for importance and strength, and myths of the acts of various members of the pantheon continue to be made in the present day, often with wide-reaching consequences (or causes, as the case may be). The most recent major example is the Fall of Isiyes, when Isiyes, through her church, demanded the worship of all the wizards of the world, and was virtually destroyed in consequence (as reflected in the collapse of her church hierarchy, the dispersal of her followers, and the deaths or broken faiths of her most influential priests). The battle waged over the fate of sorcery in the world, little known to most humans, changed the landscape of the sorcerous world drastically, with effects that are still propogating through that world, only now calming and settling, with significant consequences for both wizardry and ritual magic. Whether the Fall of Isiyes was a battle between immortal beings aided by mortals on every side (Aveyn and Athoth are said to have thwarted Isiyes according to some myths, with Athoth finally accepting the service of Isiyes in exchange for preserving her existence) or whether it was in effect a power play by an entirely mortal church that overestimated its own capabilities and collapsed in consequence, it was a battle involving enormous sorcerous power, and in spite of its recent occurence, it is already growing difficult to separate its literal history from the tricks and deceptions of the various sides and its growing halo of myth.
Other Religions
Apart from primitive animism, ancestor worship, and personality cults, any of which can sometimes associate themselves with pantheonic worship in any case, few religions are known to Black Steel personnel that do not fit in one fashion or another into the pantheon with which most of them grew up, but this may be a reflection on the amorphous nature of that pantheon and its apparent willingness to accept "variations" on its own faiths rather than any lack of religious diversity. Moreover, there are important exceptions to the general rule.
The Serpent Cult of Grat'ha
Though little is presently known about it, Black Steel personnel have recently encountered a religion deep in Grat'ha that appears (or is claimed) to predate the worship of the Great Spirits, built around the worship of gods who visit or live within the natural world in corporeal form, usually as some variety of serpent or part-serpent-part-human entity. Different classes of serpent gods apparently have specialized roles within their unique pantheon and in the lives of their followers totally unlike the pantheon described above, and theirs appears to have a much more definite hierarchy, with all the gods answerable to the one "great god Kenalthryn.".
The Faith of Nahl
Though pantheonists attempt to incorporate this faith's existence into their own worldview, sometimes even going so far as to say that Nahl is a part of the pantheon itself, attempts to do so are misguided to the point of hopelessness. The faithful of Nahl in fact do not worship, and do not regard Nahl as an entity -- certainly not as a being within a world, and least of all as a member of a pantheon of like beings. To the faithful, Nahl is that which is beyond all knowing; it is from Nahl that all things arise, and to Nahl that all shall return in the end. The name Nahl itself is to them only a name for that which in truth can be neither named nor comprehended. Much of the ritual and ceremony associated with the faith is drawn from those who "Walk with the Night," a term for those who turn for inspiration and example to the Dark Lady of Night, who in some sense represents Nahl in the same fashion as does the name. The Dark Lady is not herself called Nahl, and does not have a separate name, as she and the rituals associated with her, like the name "Nahl" itself, serve primarily as reminders of Nahl, being neither Nahl themselves nor the objects of worship, service, or attainment. They are in some sense merely symbols through which the faithful may attempt to conceive of that which is beyond conception and beyond any knowable reality.
Atheism
Several of Black Steel's most prominent, powerful, and capable members are avowed atheists, following no religion and believing in no partiular god. They do not necessarily insist that the entities worshipped by the world's various religions do not exist -- the corporeal "serpent gods" of the jungles, for instance, manifestly do -- but believe that none of them are all-powerful, nor deserving of worship, either singularly or in the collective as a pantheon. Upon meeting an entity (such as one of the corporeal serpent gods) who claims divinity, atheists tend to behave as they would toward any other sentient being, albeit a potentially dangerous one -- dangerous because of their power, if only the power of influence over those who worship them, and dangerous because claiming to be a god means to the atheist that the entity in question is one or both of ruthless enough to manipulate other people's heartfelt beliefs, or dangerously insane.
Many religious people in the Black Steel world find it hard to believe that atheists can exist or especially thrive in the face of the miraculous benefits provided to the faithful by their gods. (The faith of Nahl is an exception, as Nahl is not imagined to interfere with the world in any way except to continue to permit its existence and to welcome that which leaves it again; those who "walk with the night" appear to gain advantages having to do with the Dark Lady, but do not regard such advantages as primary to their faith. A tolerant faith in general, the faith of Nahl on the whole is very tolerant of atheists.) In light of this, it is curious to note and perhaps difficult to explain that atheists known to Black Steel seem to thrive, and to have developed capabilities well beyond the usual range of their peers, in spite of lacking the miraculous aid lent to the holy. A religious person would say, "Imagine what Theril could have achieved were she only to have found faith!" but Theril herself might say, upon considering the evidence, that she then might well have achieved less than she has on her own.
