Welcome to the Round Table of Bretonnia!

I have often found that Bretonnian fans and players have expressed a quite shocking degree of ignorance of religion in Bretonnia. The most common, stereotypical approach is to see Bretonnians as essentially monotheist in their worship of the Lady, and admittedly Games Workshop is in great part at fault for fostering this image. I believe, however, that this approach is extremely simplistic and fails to address the true complexities of Bretonnian religions life. Therefore I have written this article as an introductory survey of religion in Bretonnia, to help to deal with this problem. Multiple canon sources are alluded to and as far as I know I have not neglected any significant post-6th edition sources. If I have, no one would like to be informed of this more than I.

 While an introduction, some basic familarity with the gods is assumed, most likely in the context of the Empire. For those who lack even this, I recommend first reading this short article, which will give you a brief run-down and an explanation of some of their basic characteristics.

[This article is written from a predominantly in-character perspective. Out-of-character sources are referred to, and this is admittedly awkward, but I feel that an in-character tone adds verisimilitude. Fortunately it should all make sense in the context of the references given even out-of-character, though I do, as far as it is possible, attempt to rely on in-character explanations exclusively.]

Religiously, Bretonnia is associated above all with the Lady of the Lake. Her followers are prominent, and to the casual observer the Lady can seem to be Bretonnia. First impressions are often misleading, however, and it would be folly to assume that the Lady is the only deity of Bretonnia. Quite the contrary, in fact; as with the other nations of the Old World, Bretonnians pay homage to a vibrant, dynamic pantheon of deities. The purpose of this article is to cast some light on the variety of religious practice in Bretonnia, exploring, describing, and defining the deities commonly worshipped. While simple description of worship practices makes up a large part of this article, my own observations and theories about these belief systems are interspersed, where relevant. A future article may explore those theories in more detail. Here they are intended primarily to encourage critical reflection upon the natures of these deities and should not be taken as necessarily thorough.

While other deities are extremely important, we must begin with an examination of the Lady of the Lake if we are to produce a comprehensive survey of religion in Bretonnia. Belief in the Lady is initially described as being part of a broader animistic system of belief. In ancient times, the Bretonni paid homage to a large array of ‘earth-spirits’[1]. These spirits were believed to be part of the land itself; immanent in the elements of nature. The Lady was initially conceived of as the queen of these spirits, and nothing more; the ultimate ruler of the spirits that inhabited Bretonnia. Here one is tempted to make parallels with the enigmatic Old Faith, led by Druids who ‘[worshipped] nature and natural forces’[2]. The Old Faith, as it is called in the Empire, is still practiced by a small minority, and is associated with the first wave of human migration into the Old World (circa 1500 years before Sigmar), and some of their barrows remain in the Empire. Certain structures in Bretonnia, such as Landrel Barrow in Couronne[3], seem reminiscent of the Old Faith, and it is tempting to posit a connection between the animistic race of earth-spirits the Bretonni believed in and the nature-worship of the Druids. Perhaps the Lady herself is a hold-over from the Old Faith who has since been integrated into more modern pantheons. Intriguingly, Liber Undivided identifies Rhya as the first deity of mankind, ‘worshipped as the Mother of all life in this world’, who ‘is present in every natural creature and all flora of the natural world’, ‘[controlling] and [personifying] all the natural forces of the world’[4]. This is remarkably similar to the description of the Lady as ‘a mother-goddess who represented all that was right and good about the land’[5], and the claim that she was believed to ‘[live] in the mountains, in the grass, in the rivers, and the calm lakes found throughout the Bretonni dukedoms’[6]. Furthermore, Rhya is also said to be still venerated as the Great Mother by the Druids of the Old Faith[7]; though this may be an instance of modern Imperial scholars impressing Rhya upon a different belief system, the parallels remain compelling. Rhya is even identified with the elven goddess Isha, the one as an aspect of the other[8], and many readers will be familiar with theories that identify the Lady of the Lake with the goddess Isha, and the possible role of elven intervention and Ariel, the earthly avatar of Isha. However, that cannot be addressed in detail now. Suffice to say that as to the origins of the Lady, it is my belief that the connections between these deities are too great to be purely coincidental, and the Lady, Rhya, Isha, and the great mother goddess of prehistoric human worship are likely of common origin. Speculations involving the Truthsayers of Albion and the Old Ones could also be made, though I shall not here.

Nonetheless, it can be assumed that no modern Grail Damsel would agree to identify the Lady with previous goddesses so, and certainly in modern Bretonnia the Lady’s faith is a distinct one. Since the revelation given to Gilles le Breton[9], worship of the Lady has changed and evolved. Most notably, the minor earth-spirits with which she was associated seem to have faded out, and now their legacy is only seen in persistent Bretonnian superstition about ‘the Fay’[10]. This, of course, actually refers to the Wood Elves of Athel Loren, not any earth-spirits, and while it is intriguing to see how religious beliefs have passed into superstition and their qualities have become associated with entirely different entities, it is not relevant to our discussion of religious belief in general. (I am aware that a case could be made as to the ‘earth-spirits’ having been the Wood Elves since ancient times, but I find this unlikely, the earth-spirits having been associated with elements of nature above and beyond those where glimpses of Wood Elves would be plausible.)

The paradigm shift in the Lady’s worship, as it appears to me, came with the revelation to Gilles le Breton, and the role it played in legitimising his new position as King of Bretonnia. For him, and for his son Louis the Rash, the Lady became kingmaker in a very literal sense[11], and to this day the tradition persists that a King must be crowned by the Lady, first as a Grail Knight, then as King. What we see here is that the Lady became identified with Bretonnian nationalism. With faith in the Lady conflated with loyalty to the crown, she boomed in prominence. In the reign of Louis the Rash, a ‘wave of faith swept Bretonnia’[12], indicating the clear benefits of royal patronage. Naturally she was particularly important to the political elite: that is to say, the nobility, and so she became the ‘primary deity of the nobles’[13]. Not only do we see a role as queen of the earth transition to one as queen of the nation, we also see the beginnings of the Lady’s transition from mother-goddess to goddess of knights, nobility, and chivalry. Tying in with our earlier speculations, we can see deific roles separate, the goddess of fertility becoming the more developed goddess Rhya, and the Lady becoming ‘the ideal lady, everything a knight should love and strive to serve’[14].

While the Lady is in the modern age almost exclusively a goddess of the nobility, she is still associated with the land of Bretonnia in a very fundamental sense, and this is the avenue towards most peasant worship of her; as a symbol of Bretonnian national identity. ‘In the minds of many knights, the Lady is Bretonnia, in a mystical sense’[15], and to an extent many peasants seem to also believe this. For example, the Bretonnian Quarter in the Low City of Erengrad contains a large temple to the Lady. Recently destroyed in the Storm of Chaos, the merchant Ferragus of L’Anguille insisted on immediately rebuilding it, believing that the Lady would protect and bless the Bretonnian population of Erengrad, as well as for more practical reasons[16]. In this sense devotion to the Lady, as a uniquely Bretonnian deity, is a means for Bretonnians abroad to express their nationality and cultural heritage. Grail Chapels are also noted to be surprisingly prevalent in the Border Princes[17], due to the large Bretonnian expatriate population there (owing to the Crusades of Baron Tybalt and the Errantry Wars, particularly that of King Charlen in the year 2420 IC[18]). However, Grail Damsels as a rule do not concern themselves with the worship of the Lady outside of Bretonnia proper, presumably due to the identification of the Lady with that land most of all. There is no evangelical instinct in that sense.

There is other peasant worship of the Lady; the Grail Pilgrims are the most notable[19], but as most readers will be well familiar with them, and in my opinion they seem less characteristic of a system of religious belief and more of personality cults spontaneously arising around charismatic or heroic individuals, I shall refrain from saying much more of them. Most peasants now give their greatest devotions to deities they perceive as more relevant to their station[20].

But what is there to say of the Lady’s clergy? The Lady is also unusual in this sense for, unlike the other deities, she has no organized clergy as such. Her priests and priestesses, or rather, the closest equivalents, are the Grail Knights and Grail Damsels. Unlike the other religions, these are not selected from among the laypeople, but are chosen by divine revelation. Revelation and personal spiritual experience are held to be significant by the followers of the Lady in a way that most creeds of Old World deities do not. Grail Chapels cannot be consecrated by mortal hands but are built only in recognition of a site’s pre-existing blessedness, which is conferred upon it by the Lady herself[21]. Similarly, humans cannot ordain other humans or make them holy. The Lady must do so herself, via direct revelation in the case of a Grail Knight, or personal tutelage in the case of a Grail Damsel. This makes the Lady unique in that she is the only major Old World deity whose followers still believe appears in person to her most devout followers, and Imperial scholars tend to be skeptical of this[22]. (I do not imply that other deities do not appear in person to devout followers at times. Sigmar in particular is renowned for having intervened on several occasions. Nonetheless, it is true that the Lady is the only non-Chaos deity whose followers believe intervenes on a regular and systematic basis.)

Let us now move on from the Lady and consider the other deities of Bretonnia. They have been mentioned several times in the discussion of the Lady; the contrast between them is strong, and to an extent the Lady is everything they are not. The Lady is part of a native Bretonnian religious tradition, and other deities will be seen in this context. I do not mean to imply that deities other than the Lady are necessarily foreign or in any sense ‘un-Bretonnian’, though; indeed, they have been worshipped by the Bretonni for millennia. Bretonnia does not start with the Bretonni, however.

To expand, I do believe that these gods are of distinct origin to that of the Lady. The Lady, as I suggested above, likely has her origins in the mother-goddess figure central to the Old Faith. The rest of the deities, in terms of their origins, can be categorized as either ‘Elder Gods’ or ‘Classical Gods’[23]. The Elder Gods (Rhya, Taal, Ulric, and Manann) are considered to be ‘the oldest known deities worshipped by the peoples of the Empire and beyond’[24]. It is worth noting here that the Bretonni and the Imperial tribes[25] are of a common ethnic origin. This is never explicitly noted in the sources, but it is relatively obvious that the ‘large confederation of tribal peoples’[26] that dwarf records state crossed the World’s Edge mountains circa 1000 years before Sigmar are part of the same migration as the Bretonni chiefs, who are recorded as having passed over the Grey Mountains in the same period[27]. In both cases the original inhabitants, early human tribes and practitioners of the Old Faith, were gradually supplanted by the newcomers. The distinction I suggest is that the Lady, and to an extent Rhya, were of predominantly native origin (Rhya in particular seems to be very much a fusion of native and invader concepts, hence her partial identification with Taal), while the Elder Gods were part of a pantheon brought into the Old World by the relatively warlike newcomers.

The other grouping, the Classical Gods, are of a different ethnic origin, this one predominantly Tilean. The elven influence is also much clearer. One source suggests that this elven heritage is responsible for the Classical Gods being much more abstract, ‘civilised’ beings than the relatively wild and primal Elder Gods[28]. Tilea – to be specific, the ancient, semi-mythical city of Tylos - was settled prior to the arrival of the Bretonni and Imperial tribes in the Old World; indeed, prior to the arrival of the Old Faith natives and prior to the end of the War of the Beard itself, making them the oldest human civilisation in the Old World, save possibly that of Nehekhara[29]. The Classical Gods (Morr, Myrmidia, Shallya, and Verena) derive primarily from this tradition, and have become almost permanent fixtures of the pantheons in the Empire, Bretonnia, and other northern Old World nations. I would argue that the Classical Gods are on the whole more prominent in Bretonnia than the Empire, due to a closer geographical link that aided in trade and cultural exchange[30]. (Even linguistically, one notes that Breton retains far greater links to Classical, and so modern Tilean and Estalian tongues, than Reikspiel does.)

Of course, these are not the sum total of deities. Sigmar exists as a uniquely Imperial god, while Kislevite traditions feature the Gospodar deities Ursun, Tor, and Dazh alongside Ungol animism, not to mention the many non-human pantheons. These deities are rarely worshipped in Bretonnia except by expatriates, though, so I will leave them and focus on the Elder and Classical Gods. Perhaps most notably of all, Ranald is classified neither as an Elder or Classical God, and this poses a number of questions about the trickster god; these shall be discussed later.

So, let us begin with the Elder God with the most unique tradition of worship in Bretonnia: Manann. Manann has a long history of worship in Bretonnia, particularly in coastal areas, as one would expect. While the god of the ocean remains perennially popular with sailors, fishermen, and those who live off the sea, Bordeleaux in particular has an ancient and highly developed tradition of worshipping Manann. The largest temple to Manann in all Bretonnia sits in Bordeleaux harbour, upon a permanently moored ship[31], forcing worshippers to sail or row out to it. Despite the inherent danger of this position, exposed to storms and waves as it is, the temple has survived for many years unharmed, a fact which priests attribute to Manann’s protection. Grail Knights and Grail Damsels are forbidden to set foot on this ship. Duke Alberic, the current duke of Bordeleaux, is not a Grail Knight and has visited the temple; the first duke to do so in many generations. This is particularly interesting as the dukes of Bordeleaux have always had a complex relationship with Manann; the sea god and the Lady competing for worship. The duchal heraldry of Bordeleaux contains clear Manannite imagery[32], and according to legend Duke Marcus, Companion of Gilles, once fought side by side with the god himself to drive raiders and pirates from Bordeleaux’s coast[33]. While the polytheism of Old World religion should be emphasized, the apparent distaste for Grail Knights held by Manann’s temple (and indeed the nature of Grail Knights as committed priests of the Lady) suggests that this event, if it ever truly occurred, must have taken place prior to Marcus’ conversion upon meeting Gilles. While the truthfulness of the legend is very much in doubt, the Braid of Bordeleaux, an heirloom of the house of Marcus, serves to indicate a strong connection between Duke Marcus and the servants of Manann[34]. To this day, I would suggest, the dukes of Bordeleaux are pulled in two directions by their ancient patron, Manann, and the goddess of chivalry. Perhaps Alberic’s visit to the temple is an indicator that Manann will assume greater prominence among the Bordeleaux nobility once again.

The next Elder God to be considered is Ulric, whose worship is notably rare in Bretonnia. I am only aware of a single reference to a Bretonnian worshipper of Ulric: the rumour that Duke Adalhard of Lyonesse reveres the wolf god. This is implied to be a negative trait, and some Bretonnian observers ‘blame it on the Norscan blood found in northern Lyonesse’[35]. This suggests that not only is Ulric unpopular and his faith grounds for social ostracism but that Ulric is associated with Norsca. It is perplexing why this might be. Certainly no other source seems to suggest that Ulric is commonly worshipped by Norscans; usually they are said to worship their own, Chaos-based pantheon. It is possible that some Bretonnians have confused Ulric with Norscan gods, due to ignorance of Norscan ways and of the worship of Ulric in the Empire, or that this association has come about due to assimilated Norscans around the old Imperial province of Westerland that might have taken up Ulric’s worship and spread it west. In any case, it is true that Ulric’s popularity seems to be focused entirely in the north of the Old World. In addition to the Norscan associations, perhaps Bretonnia’s warm climate and mild winters have caused the god of winter to be less significant, or perhaps Ulric’s role as a warrior god has been predominantly filled by the Lady, causing him to be seen as unnecessary. Ulric is simply not a significant factor in Bretonnian religion. Perhaps those knights who traveled to Middenheim, Ulric’s sacred city, during the recent Storm of Chaos will have had greater exposure to Ulrican traditions and be able to bring knowledge of him back to Bretonnia itself.

Taal and Rhya are the remaining Elder Gods, and are often grouped together as husband and wife. The possible identification of Rhya with the Lady has already been noted; however, while I believe that identification is logical from an academic point of view, considering the evolution of Bretonnian religion, there is no apparent active conflation of the two goddess on the part of Bretonnian worshippers. If they are the same, it can be presumed that they diverged far in the past, the mother-goddess perhaps becoming the Lady while Rhya in her modern form is a later import from the Empire. Regardless, Rhya is often identified with Taal, and their combination faith is among the most popular for Bretonnian peasants[36]. It is known that worship of Taal first spread into Bretonnia from the east, and he remains most popular in the eastern dukedoms of Montfort, Parravon, and Quenelles, lending weight to the idea that Rhya as identified with Taal is also an Imperial import[37]. Few villages lack a shrine to these gods regardless, and ancient stone circles dedicated to them (or at least, believed to be dedicated to them; some confusion with the Old Faith may be present) still stand in Bretonnia[38]. One famous example is Guerac Circle in Mousillon, where flora remains verdant and hunting is plentiful – unusual for most of Mousillon – which the local priests and priestesses attribute to the blessings of Taal and Rhya, though they also work hard to maintain it. Another particularly famous shrine to Taal is the aptly named La Maisontaal Abbey, which was once the site of a great battle between Bretonnian forces, the skaven of the underworld, and the servants of the Lichemaster, Heinrich Kemmler. One curious aspect of Taal worship in Bretonnia not present in the Empire is his role as a patron of outlaws and brigands, made possible by the greater romanticisation of those groups. Many such men perceive themselves as hunters rather than criminals, and so fall under Taal’s protection[39]; needless to say, priests of Taal do not encourage this view.

We are now led to consider the Classical Gods. Let us begin with Morr. Worship of the god of death is almost ubiquitous, present in all Old World nations to a major degree[40], is of course important to Bretonnian life. Morr is particularly significant in regions that suffer periodic problems with the undead, such as Mousillon and its borders, and in such areas Gardens of Morr – that is to say, graveyards under the care of Morr’s priesthood - are constructed with a fortified wall that can be used to defend the Garden from an assault from inside, to avoid problems with the restless dead[41]. Such problems are rare, however, and normally both peasant and noble alike are laid to peaceful rest in a Garden of Morr.

We now move on to the goddess Myrmidia. Though primarily a regional goddess, in the same manner as Sigmar or the Lady, worshipped in the southern kingdoms of Tilea and Estalia, Myrmidia has had great penetration into the northern nations of the Old World. In Bretonnia Myrmidia is particularly popular in the southern dukedoms of Carcassonne, Brionne, and to a lesser extent Aquitaine[42]. She is also growing in popularity among men-at-arms, bowmen, and other Bretonnian peasant soldiers[43]; presumably for her role as a goddess of battle. As it would clearly be inappropriate for a peasant soldier to pay homage to the Lady, and other warrior deities such as Ulric or Sigmar are conspicuously absent, Myrmidia is one of the few warrior deities applicable to the lives of peasant soldiers. Despite this growing body of worshippers among peasants, though, Myrmidia is still often disdained by Bretonnian nobles. She remains strongly associated with Tilea and Estalia, and in much of Bretonnia a noble’s primary interaction with Tileans will be with mercenaries (for Tilean merchants, while powerful, rarely deal with the nobility but rather with the growing Bretonnian middle class). As mercenaries are officially disdained in Bretonnia, the perceived association between Myrmidia and such selfish warriors taints the goddess in the eyes of the nobility[44]. In areas where Myrmidia’s worship is stronger, particularly in Carcassonne, a more pragmatic attitude towards mercenaries predominates[45].

Shallya is another example of a goddess unpopular among nobles but widely worshipped by the peasantry; indeed, it would not be false to say that, in terms of simple popularity, Shallya is without a doubt the pre-eminent deity of Bretonnia[46]. Shallya’s role as a goddess of mercy and healing is clearly highly applicable to a Bretonnian peasant’s typical living conditions, and nearly every peasant villages contains a shrine to Shallya at the centre[47]. The largest temple to Shallya in the entire Old World stands in Bretonnia, in the city of Couronne, and pilgrimages to this site are made by devotees of Shallya from all across the Old World[48], and every six years, the chief priests and priestesses of the cults of Shallya throughout the nations of the Old World gather in Couronne to form a council, which has supreme authority over the Shallyan faith[49]. Despite its size and wealth, the nobility and the Grail Damsels have successfully ensured that the priesthood of Shallya is politically marginalised, and the temple has very little influence on city affairs. The priesthood of Shallya – or at least, the current matriarch of the religion in Couronne – is essentially accepting of this, holding that temporal politics would only serve to distract them from their true mission.

Aware of her dominance in peasant worship, many nobles have taken up the tradition of attaching small shrines to Shallya to Grail Chapels[50], presumably to encourage peasants to worship the Lady. Peasants do seem to respond well to this and frequent Grail Chapels more often as a result of this policy, but its role in encouraging the spread of the Shallyan heresy as regards the Lady is potentially undesirable from a noble perspective. It is worth pointing out that depictions of Shallya in religious iconography often have a great deal in common with depictions of the Lady, as well as those of both Rhya and Isha (further supporting my belief that these deities are evidence of an ancient proto mother goddess that has since diversified); such similarities include depictions as women of unearthly beauty, emphasis on their mercy towards and protection of the weak, use of tears as a symbol, and focus on promoting health and wellbeing[51]. In the context of the inadvertent identification of Shallya with the Lady in Grail Chapels and these iconographic similarities, the Shallyan heresy is not surprising. It is common among peasants to believe that the Lady of the Lake is a servitor of Shallya, who guides the nobility, under direction from Shallya, to protect and succour the peasantry[52]. It is true that devout servants of the Lady, such as Grail Knights, do tend to treat peasants with mercy, but they nonetheless make every attempt to root out the heresy whenever it appears. The heresy does not appear to be organised in any real sense, but is simply a common conclusion drawn by peasants[53]. I would argue that the above tendencies and the similarities between the Lady and Shallya, as aspects of the primordial mother goddess, are the root cause of this belief, and this is why the followers of the Lady have such difficulty removing it.

The final Classical God is Verena, who does not seem to be terribly popular in Bretonnia. As in all nations of the Old World, she is a patron deity of scholars and lawyers[54], but due to the lesser prominence of these social groups within Bretonnia relative to the Empire or Tilea, she is naturally worshipped more rarely. Again, she is worshipped most intriguingly among peasants. Elders and other village leaders typically appeal to Verena for justice as they go about their duties. Like Taal, Verena is also popular among the Herrimaults, as a deity of justice who is not part of the dominant, i.e. Lady-centred, religious paradigm.

We now come to Ranald, who does not seem to fit neatly into the categories of Old and Classical Gods. The myth that Ranald gained his divinity by drinking a vial of Shallya’s tears[55] may indicate a Classical connection; or, if taken literally, it may indicate a late deification in the same manner as Sigmar. The mysteries of Ranald are certainly worth consideration, but I shall not speculate further here. In Bretonnia, secret temples to Ranald are very common in the larger cities, where crime is endemic[56], indicating that he is worshipped in Bretonnia in his aspect as a god of thievery. However, surprisingly, this role is secondary to his role as a god of merchants and enterprise[57]; though this may be partly due to the conflation of those two roles by the Bretonnian nobility, who traditionally regard both thievery and mercantilism as dishonourable ways to earn a living.

Finally, there is the man-god Sigmar Heldenhammer. While a regional god of the Empire, and thus both rarely worshipped in Bretonnia and derided as a ‘foreign’ god, the actions of expatriates have given Sigmar’s cult a minor but real presence in Bretonnia. Worship of Sigmar is not persecuted or stigmatised as such, but it does seem to be regarded as an oddity. To many Bretonnians the idea of worshipping a human is entirely alien; they do not seem to fully grasp the concept of apotheosis and as such do not understand how or why anyone would worship Sigmar[58]. Unsurprisingly the largest temple to Sigmar on Bretonnian soil lies in the town of Inner Montfort, which includes a large population of ethnic Imperials, such that is said that a person living there is more likely to have visited Altdorf than Outer Montfort[59]. Another notable temple to Sigmar lies at the centre of a town called Sigmarsheim in Lyonesse, which includes a large ethnically Imperial population brought back from the Empire by a knight errant[60]. Despite instances like this, however, Sigmar seems to have gained very little traction among the peasantry.

Having concluded a brief look at each significant deity worshipped in Bretonnia, what conclusions can be drawn? Unlike the Empire, where Sigmar takes central place and other religions exist in comparison to this humanistic innovation, I would generalise that the central figure in Bretonnian religion is the primordial mother goddess in her many guises; whether the Lady, Rhya, or Shallya. Bretonnian religion is a fascinating evolution of ancient earth-based monotheism into a vibrant and complex polytheism that reflects the growth of civilisation and diversification of religious needs among the population. The gods permeate Bretonnian life and the combined pantheon is an essential part of Bretonnian national identity.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2^nd edition, Chris Pramas et. al., Black Industries, Nottingham, 2005.

Knights of the Grail, David Chart et. al., Black Industries, Nottingham, 2006.

Bretonnia, 6^th edition, Anthony Reynolds et. al., Games Workshop, Nottingham, 2003.

‘The Endless Pantheons’, Liber Undivided in Liber Chaotica Complete, Marijian von Staufer and Richard Williams et. al., Black Library Publishing, Nottingham, 2005.