Welcome to the Round Table of Bretonnia!

Other deities of the Bretonni

There's one God of the Old World pantheon who hasn't received his own chapter from me. Two if we count the Imperial God Sigmar, but I briefly discussed him together with Ulric. The deity in question is Ranald the Trickster, a God who would be of little importance to the Bretonni tribesmen in my opinion. He is the God of Luck and Good Fortune, and while that could certainly come in handy, the fact that his faith has no structure whatsoever limits his influence. "[Ranald's] is a curious cult, for it lacks the trappings, the pomp and majesty, even the structure of other cults. His priests are thieves, tricksters, and gamblers, rather than the educated effete so favoured by others. His temples are the gambling halls, the brothels, the taverns, and other dens of iniquity, not the gilt structures of gold and marble."[29] Then there's the fact that he and his followers all detest unnecessary violence, which makes it unlikely that the popularity of his cult among the embattled horse-warriors would be high.

There are many other deities in the Old World, ranging from minor Gods who have cults with international connections to localized nature spirits who dwell in an old tree. I like to believe that the Bretonni would have a wide variety of lesser deities and spirits to pray to, much like their Imperial cousins still do to this very day. In the context of these articles however they're of negligible importance. Especially since their cults are more often than not disorganized at best. While the priesthoods of Handrich the Dealer, Scripsisti the God of Scribes and other deities have a more formal structure, they in turn rely upon that structure. Or more precisely, their cults rely upon the structure and safety of civilization. Their domains are restricted to towns, arts, philosophy and high culture, which means these deities and their cults would be of relative little use to the rural Bretonni. There are more martial deities such as Solkan the Avenger, but his status as a God of Law again means that the tribesmen would at best tolerate the worship of this restrictive and formal God. In short, the cults of the other deities of the Old World would not have enough influence among the Bretonni to justify talking about them in this series.

The end of the beginning

Let's summarize what my musings have come to so far. First you have the Church of Nature and Nuture - or the priesthood of Taal and Rhya if you prefer - as the dominating religious authority in early Bretonnia. This is closely followed by the worship of Ulric and Manann, with Ulric being cast as the martial and survivor aspect of the Church of Nature, and Manann as the avenging ‘angel' and/or the executioner of the cult.

Then you have the Classical Gods, where Verena is shown as the figurehead of these southern deities. Her daughter Myrmiddia is considered as a saint of Verena, with Myrmiddians being characterized as warmongering theocrats that fight among themselves for little discernible purpose. The priests of Shallya would be seen as the saviours and benefactors of the Bretonni, bringing relief to all they meet. Morr would receive little love, but his wandering devotees would inspire much dread.

Now we have a notion of what kind of religious customs the Bretonni had before Unification. Starting from that it's possible to conceive how and why these customs changed due to Unification. In the next part I will talk about how the priests of the Bretonni reacted to the coming of Gilles le Breton, his Grail Companions and the Lady of the Lake.

[1] Sigmar's Heirs (Black Industries, 2005), page 5 & 6

[2] Tome of Salvation (Black Industries, 2007), page 14

[3] Knights of the Grail (Black Industries, 2006), page 65

[4] Dogs of War (Games Workshop, 1998), page 3

[5] Tome of Salvation, page 40

[6] Tome of Salvation, page 105

[7] Tome of Salvation, page 44

[8] Knights of the Grail, page 14 & 15

[9] Tome of Salvation, page 51

[10] Tome of Salvation, page 63-65

[11] Tome of Salvation, page 72

[12] Knights of the Grail, page 37

[13] Tome of Salvation, page 73

[14] Knights of the Grail, page 40

[15] Sacred Flesh (Black Library, Robin D Laws, 2004) page 32 & 33

[16] Tome of Salvation, page 51 & 52

[17] Knights of the Grail, page 14

[18] Tome of Salvation, page 173

[19] Tome of Salvation, page 36

[20] Knights of the Grail, page 64, 66, 70, 89, 90 & 91

[21] Barony of the Damned (Black Industries, 2006), page 24

[22] Apocypha Now! (Games Workshop, 1995), page 25

[23] Tome of Salvation, page 44

[24] Sacred Flesh, page 83

[25] Brunner (Black Library, C.L. Werner, 2003), page 98

[26] Tome of Salvation, page 37

[27] Heldenhammer (Black Library, Graham McNeill, 2008), page 179

[28] Heldenhammer (2008), page 227

[29] Tome of Salvation, page 46