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 completly 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 onwad, 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.
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 recieving 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 recieve 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.
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 Mountain Shephards.
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."