The Seven Saints + Their Religious Orders
The Seven Saints are the main figures of the religion of the Empire. They were (supposedly) important figures in the founding of the Empire and their various religious orders run the theocracy.
Kali (Saint of War)
Kali was initially an Orcish war leader in the Orcish Isles. From a young age she had a reputation as a fierce fighter and Orcish oral history attributes many achievements to her (such as strangling a snake at a few days old in her cradle). During the initial conquest period of the Empire, Kali successfully conquered and united the Orcish Isles under her and fought the Empire to a standstill despite overwhelming odds. According to religious history, Tara then chose to personally speak to her and three days later they both emerged -> the Orcish Isles a proud part of the Empire and Kali the Empire's foremost general.
Kali's Legion
Kali's Legion is the professional arm of the Imperial military, composed mostly of heavy infantry with halberd, polearm and shield specializations. Military conscripts who show talent during initial training will often be handed over to the Legion and many choose to sign on to the Legion for a term of service after their conscription period has ended. Members of the Legion are expected to strictly adhere to military hierarchy and laws. At a high enough level of training (and DM discretion) a player may become a Marked Legionnaire, tattooing the symbol of the Legion above their right eye. Many fighters choose this path, though it comes with obligations of terms of service, as the Legion provides training and other benefits. Kali's Legion also contains War Priests, who are Fighter/Warlock multi classers with Kali as their patron.
The elite of the Legion are the Centurions, the 100 most powerful fighters and generals of the Legion. There is only one way to become a Centurion and that is to challenge and defeat a current Centurion, taking their place. Centurions are blessed by Kali and their blessings are maintained by expensive and elaborate weekly rituals and castings of the War Priests.
Tara (Saint of Law)
Little is known about Tara's early history and Church writings on it are vague but the popular oral tradition holds that Tara was the first of the Saints to swear to the cause. She fully held to the ideals of the Empire and was the first one to map the eventual Empire. Supposedly when she spoke, she believed in her words so strongly that the world bent itself to rearrange itself to the new truth she laid out. While she led the initial military expansion, Tara mainly spent her time enforcing the laws of the Empire, mapping its interior as it expanded and acting as the Empire's foremost diplomat. She founded the first Knightly Order (the Trackers) that still exists to this day.
There are ten Knightly Orders of Tara, each headed by a Justice who is blessed by Tara. Each Justice is fully aligned to a specific ideal and members of each order must also align to those ideals to be members. Some Justices are able to bless higher level members of their Order and some just have blessings applied to themselves. Player characters may choose to join an Order if judged qualified by the DM.
Knightly Order: The Trackers
The Trackers are the initial Knightly Order. They are headed by Justice Carter (who has the title Head Cartographer of the Empire) and his ideal is to map the entire world until there are no more Wilds remaining. Prospective and full members of this Order will be required to follow this ideal by recording and mapping their adventures and travels. Trackers focus their skills primarily in the Plains and commonly use horses. This order offers special training in cartography, tracking and pathfinding while in the plains, and mounted combat. A Tracker might be primarily built as a Fighter with just a small splash of Rogue.
Knightly Order: The Mage Mashers
In the Empire no mages are permitted to learn or use 4th level spells or higher and the enforcement of this law is (enthusiastically) handled by the Mage Mashers. The Mage Mashers (they have a more formal name but prefer the nickname) are led by Justice "Monty" Montgomery whose ideal is to control and contain all magic. Prospective and full members of this Order follow this ideal by viewing all magic and mages with distrust and swearing to destroy all mages who break the law. Ironically, full members of this Order actually have to have a single level in Mage so as to learn the spell Read Magic to properly identify magic texts and expedite their book burning.
The Mage Mashers have had a recent upswing in popularity due to the public defeat of the dreaded Flamemaster (a high level pyromaniac mage who successfully burned down multiple cities) by Justices Montgomery and Guy.
Knightly Order: The Fire Breakers
The Fire Breakers hold a simple ideal: to protect the citizens of the Empire (nay the world!) from the ravages of fire, whether that be house, city or forest fires. The order is led by Justice Guy, a former Centurion. Guy, a hairless (all the hair was long burned away) four-armed (the better to hold more buckets) orc is currently very popular after his participation in the defeat of Flamemaster in which he took several fireballs directly to the chest. Prospective and current Fire Breakers have many requirements to fulfill their ideal, including: never using Rogue skills that don't involve helping put out fires, never using fire offensively, always being in charge of managing all campfires and carrying a bucket at all times.
Knightly Order: The Courtiers
The Courtiers are a Knightly Order composed of the very rich and powerful and they charge excessive fees to be a member. They also require exclusivity in training. Due to this player characters are unlikely to be members of this Order. The Courtiers are led by Justice Carmella, whose ideal is the pursuit of noblesse oblige. This means that she does many good deeds, raising lots of money for charity and acting as a benevolent knight errant but it also means that she and her Order can be the exact stereotype of out of touch rich people. Carmella is highly classist and is one of the few Justices that gets along with the Idol. She often persuades the Idol into participating in her various charity endeavors.
Sona (Saint of Beauty)
Sona was born to a family of elven Diviners in the City of Umon and initially trained as a Diviner. While not much is known about exactly what happened, we know that Sona declared herself betrayed by the City of Umon and departed, traveling the world to seek out pieces of the Clockwork (remnants of the original foundations of the universe that the gnomes built their cities around) and invent illusion magic. Sona made a name for herself as a wandering adventurer, seeking acclamation and fame for her daring exploits. During the Empire's conflict with the Mirror City, she destroyed the Great Mirror, sealing the Empire's (initial) victory and joining the Saints in their great ambitions -> though those who do not adhere to the religion of the Empire claim she did it to get access to even more pieces of the Clockwork.
The Idol
Sona does not have a religious order... or at least she officially doesn't have one. There are persistent rumors of a cabal of powerful movers and shakers that worship Sona and study illusion magic, but one would have to be recruited by them to find out the truth. The one public figure of Sona is the Idol. Much like the Justices and the Centurions, the Idol is blessed with the power of Sona but since they are the sole recipient they are far more individually powerful and blessed. The Idol most likely has changed many times over the years, but since they appear in many guises (though always beautiful) no one knows exactly how many Idols there have been. The Idol has a small cult of followers in the capital city and mostly remains there, participating in gladiator fights, pageants, and general occasional showboating for charity when Justice Carmella can get them to help.
Vash (Saint of Commerce)
Vash was a powerful gnomish noble who resided at the ancient Temple City, now the Imperial Capital. He and Tara were the first two Saints to unite under their cause and the Imperial Conquest was initially launched from his city. Vash was the main administrator of the Empire and created much of the current legal and physical infrastructure of the Empire. Warlocks with Vash as their patron are known as clerics and must belong to the Clerical Order and follow its decrees. They have access to specific spells developed by Rath and Mida.
Rath (Saint of Fertility)
Rath was a halfling who initially studied under Mida, but soon split ways due to personal differences. He innovated farming and breeding techniques using his knowledge of magic and was one of first "scientists" of magic. Rath was responsible for the mostly peaceful assimilation of forest elf settlements into the Empire as he spent a significant amount of time in their major settlements. Warlocks with Rath as their patron are known as clerics and must belong to the Clerical Order and follow its decrees. They have access to specific spells developed by Rath and Mida.
Mida (Saint of Death)
Mida is possibly the most revered of the Saints. She is commonly depicted as a beautiful, beatific maiden, haloed in soft light, dispensing healing upon the common people. The truth about Mida is a little more unsavory.
Mida was a powerful magic user who lived in Temple City at the beginning of the Empire. Joining with the Empire gave her access to unlimited resources... and she used them to push the boundaries of spell creation more than they ever had been... and perhaps more than they ever should have been. Only very high level clerics of Mida who have sworn the Midian Oath know the true depths of what Mida did and the price she paid happily to discover almost all of the restorative magic used today.
Warlocks with Mida as their patron are known as clerics and must belong to the Clerical Order and follow its decrees. They have access to specific spells developed by Rath and Mida. High level clerics may be chosen to swear the Midian Oath and unlock the highest level spells of Mida, but beware- if you choose to go this path, you may not like what you find.
Umon (Saint of Knowledge)
Umon has no religious order nor any warlocks. Umon may be revered as a Saint, but if you ask a high level Diviner they will tell you that the Saint Umon was simply a major leader of the City of Umon who worked with the Empire, and that the true Umon demands pursuit of knowledge not worship. Despite this, many Imperial citizens believe that the City of Umon and the Library of Umon were named after Saint Umon.
The Nine Queen Alliance
Hive is ruled by an alliance of Nine Queens -> but in reality, it is truly ruled by Queen Ironfist.
Queen Ironfist
Queen Ironfist is the oldest living dwarven queen in existence and she may be the oldest and most powerful being in the world. Luckily she is far more concerned with controlling Hive and politically manipulating the other queens than in conquest. Queen Ironfist seeks out only the most talented dwarves to awaken as part of her clan. Player characters may only be members of the Ironfist clan with DM approval; that is to say, player characters will not be from the Ironfist clan ☻
Queen Hammertoe
Queen Hammertoe primarily seeks out warriors and miners. She was awakened at the same time as her sister queen Queen Helmütheir and the two are inseparable. Queen Hammertoe initiates every new dwarf into her clan by beating them up on the training field.
Queen Helmütheir
Queen Helmütheir primarily seeks out miners and warriors to awaken. She was awakened at the same time as her sister queen Queen Hammertoe and the two are inseparable. Queen Helmütheir initiates every new dwarf into her clan by beating them up on the training field.
Queen Featherstone
Queen Featherstone is the only living queen that was personally awakened by Queen Ironfist and due to that Queen Ironfist has a slight fondness towards her. This is good, because Featherstone is far more interested in exploring and inventing than participating in helping Hive function. Unfortunately this extends to supporting her clan members - Featherstone will awaken any dwarf allotted to her then toss them out into the world. If they make it to level 5 she may learn their name and take an interest in them. Due to this, adventurer dwarfs found outside Hive are often members of Clan Featherstone.
Queen Foolsgold
Queen Foolsgold is the second strongest dwarven queen in the Hive region -> a ranking confirmed by her unsuccessful coup several centuries ago that she was exiled from Hive for. Queen Foolsgold and Queen Ironfist are mortal enemies and maintain an ongoing cold war that may be heating up again. Dwarves of Clan Foolsgold are often proficient in illusion magic which allows them to disguise their clan symbol to sneak into Hive, either to drink or to perform acts of sabotage. Adventurer dwarves are often members of Clan Foolsgold.
Queen Jeweleater
Queen Jeweleater is a queen of artificers, specializing in choosing and awakening the most talented craftsdwarves. She maintains relations with both Queen Ironfist and Queen Foolsgold, balancing them carefully. She is also the main source of the mysterious rainbow shells that rumors say come from the Eye of the Storm...
The Minor Three
The Minor Three are a trio of queens that maintain civil relations with the Nine Queen Alliance and are welcome in Hive but have managed to avoid being subsumed into Queen Ironfist's sphere of influence.