The Cult of the Shattered Mountain

The Cult of the Shattered Mountain is a heretical cult worshipping the Giant Goddess Othea. Though since her name had been struck from the history books, they worshipped her as The Shattered Mountain. The Cult believed that the Shattered Mountain was the true creator of the race of giants, and the rest of the giant pantheon are just posers. This belief has led worshipers of the Shattered Mountain to be persecuted in giant cultures and outlawed by many giant clans.

The cults symbol is a mountain with a crack down the center.

History

The Cult of the Shattered mountain have their roots in the original worshipers of Othea in Prehistory. Othea had many worshipers across the Material Plane and within her own divine realm, Thalmyr. They revered both the goddess and her celestial giant servants. But when the at the time Archangel, Asmodeus, invaded Thalmyr, he slew Othea and transformed Thalmyr into the Ten Hells. After removing Othea's heart, Asmodeus banished what remained of the goddess beneath the River Styx.

Asmodeus then began a crusade to erase the memory of Othea from the realm to hide the fact that the Creator Gods had authorized her murder. What Celestial Giants that had survived Asmodeus' invasion were forced to bend the knee to Asmodeus and were sworn to secrecy about Othea. Asmodeus then elevated these Celestial Giants to minor godhood, and established them as the new giant pantheon and as the "true" creators of giant kind. At Asmodeus' command, these new giant gods extinguished Othea's remaining worshipers and removed her name from the face of Quelmar.

But their attempt to eliminate the worship of Othea wasn't completely successful, as small pockets of her worshipers were able to go into hiding. But as time passed, even these fervent worshipers forgot the name of their goddess, now referring to her as "The Shattered Mountain."

For centuries onward, the worship of the Shattered Mountain would be considered heresy within Giant culture, with worship of the Shattered Mountain being punishable by exile or death or many cases. Sects of the cult could only exist in secrecy, and survived by drawing in new members who lived on the fringes of Giant society.

But the truth was that it wasn't the Shattered Mountain sending Thrya her visions. Instead it was the archdevil Mammon posing as the giant goddess with the aim of manipulating the cult for his own ends.

The Rise of the Ordained

Sometime around the late 600s PR, a Storm Giant member of the cult, Thrya Cloudbreaker, recieved a vision from the Shattered Mountain. This sent waves throughout the cult as it was the first time their goddess had ever reached out to one of her worshipers. In the vision Thrya was instructed to find other giants who could serve as the Shattered Mountain's champions and eventually revive the goddess.

After receiving this vision, Othea began to travel across the planes and found five other giants to serve as the Shattered Mountain's Champions. Together these giant champions would become known as the ordained, with Thrya as their leader. Thrya continued to receive visions from the Shattered Mountain, and with her goddess' guidance, Thrya showed each member of the Ordained how to draw power from the Shattered Mountain and create runes of great power. These runes amplified their current abilities, but also made them immune to the attack and spells of any Devil who drew their power from the Ruby Rod.

Now imbued with their goddess' power, the Ordained began to travel the planes, reuniting the many sects of the cult under one banner. During this time they would also serve as mercenaries within the Elemental Planes in order to gather enough power, allies, and resources for their future operations.

The Infernal Insurrection

Guided by Thrya's visions, the Ordained executed a plan to free their goddess. First the Ordained made contact with the Demon Lord Ratatrosk and petitioned him for help in killing Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, since demons were one of the few creatures able to kill Charon. With Ratatrosk's help the Ordained killed Charon before Ratatrosk then used Charon's oar to stop the flow of the River Styx, causing the River Styx to disappear. Then to prevent anyone from undoing what they had done, the Ordained used the magic of their runes to destroy Charon's oar. With the River Styx gone, the remains of their goddess were unbound and ejected into the Ethereal Plane. Lastly to cover up lose ends, the Ordained attempted to kill Ratatrosk, but the Demon Lord managed to escape.

The Ordained then began to execute the next stage of their plan to free the Shattered Mountain rom the Ethereal Plane. For their plan to work, they needed a Ruby Heart, one of the piece of the Ruby Rod, as their focal point to open a hole through the ethereal vale. The Ordained then split up, sowing chaos across the Hells and each on their own attempting to get their hands on a Ruby Heart.

The Hill Giant Angrboda began to make waves on the first layer of the hells, Duumal, by competing in the Infernal Rodeo. Eventually they aligned themselves with the Pit Fiend Bel and helped to escalate the civil war brewing in the region with plans to snatch the Ruby Heart of the archduchess Elytria in the chaos.

The Cloud Giant Stratia Nimbus and the Stone Giant Waord traveled to the Iron City of Dis on the second layer of the Hells and planned to assassinate the ruler of the city Dispater to recover his piece of the Ruby Heart. Their attempt was foiled when the dragon Barroth warned the archdevil about the coming giant assassins.

The Frost Giant Hrothgar Icevein traveled to the frozen realm of Stygia where he conjured a massive storm that would begin to tear the entire layer apart, hoping to kill the reigning archdevil and then later locate their Ruby Heart.

The Fire Giant smith Vorgath Embermaul would travel to the sixth layer of the Hells, Malbolge, and would become embroiled in the war between the dragon Barroth and the archdevils Philani and Delphyne. They would serve as a smith in Barroth's forges, making weapons and armor for the dragon's armies while keeping an eye on how the war progressed.

Thrya Cloudbreaker herself traveled to Phlegethos where she incited a revolution from the many slaves and prisoners within the infernal city of Abriymoch, leading to the capture and execution of many archdevils. Though she would not remain in Phlegethos for long, eventually traveling down to the eighth layer of the Hells, Cania, to do battle with the archduke Mephistopheles.

At the same time on the Material Plane, cultists of the Shattered Mountain began to engage in mass suicide, aiming to increase the number of spirits within the Ethereal Plane to aid in the resurrection of their goddess.

The Ordained would soon come into conflict with the heroes known as the Hellraisers, including Aivan Factorovich, Aliria Servine, Balaam, Nyrgoth, Endine di Valpadana, and Sylphine Nightfall. The Hellraisers with the aid of Ratatrosk sought to remake the River Styx, and so needed the runes of the Ordained. Traveling through the Hells, the party woul fight and kill both Woard and Hrothgar, recovering their runes.

At the execution of Elytria, Angrboda was able to betray Bel and stole away with Elytria's Ruby heart, fleeing with the aid of Thrya. Traveling deeper into the Hells, the ordained organized an ambush in Maladomini, the seventh layer of the Hells in order to slow down the Hellraisers who were in pursuit.

Traveling to Nessus, Thrya proposed an alliance to the ruling archdevil Glasya, who saw the giants as the perfect tool for her to gain power within the Hells. When Glasya's warlock, Aliria, betrayed her, Glasya helped Angrboda and a team of cultists to ambush the Hellraisers again. In the battle, Angrboda was slain but Glasya was able to steal away with the Hill Rune. With the Hill Rune in her possession, Glasya discovered the truth of her mother's murder, Azhazni, at the hands of Mammon and using the rune kidnapped the lord of greed.

Now with three Ruby Hearts in their possession, Thrya and Glasya traveled to Hellmar to perform the ritual. But to her horror, Thrya stopped receiving visions from the Shattered Mountain. Since Mammon was captured and could no longer pose as the goddess, Thrya no longer received visions and began to panic, making to easier for Glasya to worm her way into Thrya's good graces. Thrya's actions became more aggressive, which eventually drove away Stratia Nimbus, the only other surviving member of the Ordained. Stratia believed they were violating their goddess' teaching by allying with Glasya, and so forsook Thrya's crusade.

Traveling to Asmodeus' infernal fortress, Kashtar-Val, Thrya and Glasya as well as the remaining cultists of the Shattered mountain began their ritual to summon their goddess.

Worship

Since the worship of the Shattered Mountain is considered a dangerous heresy, all worship by members of the cult must be done in secret. Cult sects gather in secret meetings to discuss how to expand their ranks as well as to give praise to the goddess. While the Shattered mountain is unable to grant divine spells, many sects are led by priests known as Shattered Shepherds. New potential worshipers would be sought out from any giantkin who seemed dissatisfied with Giant culture and wanted to upset the balance of what is to a return of what was.

Since the cult has to exist in secrecy, communication between sects is far and few between, so many sects find their own ways of worshiping the Shattered Mountain. In some cases worship of the Shattered Mountain includes the ritual sacrifices of elementals, the creation of works of art, or sometimes just simple prayer. Some extreme sects even engage in attacks against other churches that worship the "false pantheon."

To become a Shattered Shepherd, an initiate would have to forsake their name, only then to be referred to as Brother, Sister, or Sibling Mountain.

Organization

The Cult of the Giant Mountain is primarily made up of Giantkin, including true Giants as well as lesser giants like Goliaths, Trolls, ogres, and Cyclops.

before the rise of the Ordained, cult sects were typically consisted of of between four to twenty members, and were led by at leas one or two Shattered Shepherds. There was little organization between sects though, as most avoided communication in fear they would get caught.

When the Ordained took over, the cult was united beneath them, with each member of the ordained taking command over certain sects, fostering their own cultists as they saw fit. During this time, the cult also became more militarized, with many cultists being giving training with weapons of elemental magic.

The Ordained

Gathered and led by Thrya Cloudbreaker, the ordained served as champions of the Shattered Mountain and the leaders of the cult. They were instrumental in leading to the events of the Infernal Insurrection.

Stratia Nimbus

Stratia Nimbus was born to a noble cloud giant family in the Fiddlehead Mountains of Pteris. But tragically Stratia was born blind, and so was hidden by her family from the rest of the world. Stratia grew up in isolation, growing to resent her family and the rest of the giants in the mountains for staying away from her. Eventually she could talk no more of her imprisonment and so fled her family, quickly getting lost in the mountains. Stratia would have perished in the wilderness if it was not foe thrya Cloudbreaker who arrived and saved her. For this Stratia became one of Thrya's most devoted disciples and was inducted into the Ordained. With Thrya's guidance Stratia crafted the Cloud Rune, a metal blindfold that gave her control and the speed of the wind. But Stratia's vigilance did not go away after being freed from imprisonment, and so she stayed hyper aware of those who sought to control and take advantage of her, slowly over the years turning her devotion of Thrya into suspiscion.

Hrothgar Icevein

Hrothgar Icevein is a Frost Giant Druid hailing from the frozen mountains of Breme. For many years their tribe lived in peace until overhunting from nearby humanoid villages began to make food more and more scarce. While the clan wanted to move deeper into the mountains, Hrothgar refused to surrender and instead chose to fight back. He began to raid humanoid villages bordering the mountains and became feared across the region. Eventually, the villages were able to mount a strong defense, horrifically wounding Hrothgar and forcing him to flee into a nearby cave. Here he expected he would die, but before that could happen, he was visited by Thrya Cloudbreaker, who promised him a chance at revenge. Hrothgar was inducted into the Ordained and with Thrya's guidance, created the Frost Rune which imbued his staff with power over snow and storms and allowed him to create monstrous constructs out of ice.

Known Members

• Atlas the Goliath
• Grundel the Troll