Avatol

Avatol is a celestial deity worshipped throughout the Material Plane, most centrally in Hygard, Pinnsmouth, R.S.D., and The Fire Islands. Unlike many extra-planar deities, Avatol is never depicted as having material form, instead symbolized as a five-pronged ray of light, resembling both a humanoid figure and a five-fingered hand. The Church of Avatol has been an immensely powerful international presence since the Silver Age, garnering social and political influence with rapid success due to its close fusion with the Hygardian monarchy.

The central tenants of Avatolian faith are rigid righteousness and devotion, repelling of all conventional evils, and unflinching trust in divine providence. The first and most central teaching of the faith is the Last Act, which was Avatol's decision to place humans on the Material Plane during the Sunless Age, for the purpose of resisting and vanquishing the draconic threat.

The Church has gone through many major evolutions since its founding, not in the least regarding its attitudes about magic. Early Avatolian faith was harshly mistrustful of magic, likely due to humans' lack of innate magical ability. As the Church gained prominence and influence, Clerics and Paladins capable of wielding divine magic began to emerge within its ranks. Attitudes toward arcane magic gradually relaxed after this, allowing for a rise in the practice of wizardry. As the benefit of arcane magic in the war effort against Dragonkind became evident, the Hygardian crown rescinded general bans on arcane magic in order to facilitate the building of Sanctorum City, where arcane study could thrive and grow.