This subject was once well worked by a Warhammer fanatic : Hachman who long ago held the Warhammer Heroes forum...
The original authors, when they designed WFRP's gods, inspired themselves from Greek polytheism, mainly, and a bit from Roman, Germanic, Celtic polytheism... They obviously also took inspiration from other fantasy works...
But, as in many other fantasy works, they failed to free themselves from a Christian monotheistic frame of thought... And their successors failed even more and worsened this situation... The Old World religion look way more like a cohabitation of many monotheisms rather than to a polytheistic religion. And the whole divide between orthodoxy and heterodoxies, which is more or less present among every gods and became fundamental for the cult of Sigmar is
quasi incompatible with the essence of polytheism.
Whoever is able to understand spoken French might be interested by this very interesting registered cycle of lessons of Religion, History and Society in the Ancient Greek World, in the College of France:
https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/v ... course.htm
My own view of the religion in the Empire is that Religion and Worships were somehow learned by prehistoric Old Worlder from Asurs, at the time of the height of the Eltharin Empire. Asurs themselves where teach on those matters by Old Slanns. That is to say that Kislevites, Imperials, Estalians, but also Asurs, Asraï
et alii worship the same gods in a same pantheon, albeit each of those gods are perceived differently and sometime with different names... It also sometime appears that distinct gods were reunited into a same worship and perceived as a single god, or, on the contrary, that different aspect of a same god might be perceived and worshipped as being representation of distinct gods.
Old Worlders worship all those gods, without any discrimination, albeit they tend to worship some more often than others : all those gods are part of the Imperial society, and are useful to it. For that reason, Khaíne's cult isn't forbidden (it make no sense). Khaíne is openly worshipped as, for example, a god of Revenge and of Self Justice.
This pantheon might roughly look like this:
Code: Select all
Gia ✝ (Gea, la Déesse Mère)
× Gia ✝ (Gea, la Déesse Mère)
¦
+->Asuryan ✝ (Ishernos, Söll)
¦ × Gia ✝ (Gea, la Déesse Mère)
¦ ¦
¦ +->Lileath l'Ancienne ✝
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Kurnous ✝ (Taal)
¦ ¦ +->× Isha (Rhya, Déesse mère, Haleth, Dyrath, Ishea, Hyacinthe)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Lileath la Jeune (Ladrielle, Lilcarth, La dame du Lac)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->les Ældars...
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Karnos (Taal, Karog)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Torothal (Taal)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Ellinill (Taal, Lupos)
¦ ¦ +->× Isha (Rhya, Déesse mère, Haleth, Dyrath, Ishea, Hyacinthe)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Addaioth (Dazh)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Estreuth
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Hukon
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Mathlann (Manann, Stormfels, Olovald, Manalt, Manas, Manhavok, Mathann, Shark Lord, King of the Raging Seas)
¦ ¦ ¦ +->× Liadriel (Deanosius, Panasia)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +->Händrich (Haendrick, O Prospero, Mercopio)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +->Amex
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ × Rigg
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +->Kalith
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ×
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +->les Amazones
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Drakira
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Eldrazor (Ulric, Olric, Ursash, Main-Rouge, Roi des neiges)
¦ ¦ x
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->les prétendus fils d'Ulric
¦ ¦
¦ +->Ereth Khial ✝
¦ ¦ × Asuryan ✝
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Nethu ✝
¦ ¦ × Morai-Heg (Corbeau, Corneille)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Sarriel (Mórr, Gazul, Forsagh)
¦ ¦ ¦ × Hœth (Véréna, Clio, Renbaeth, Scripsisti)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Myrmidia (la Furie, Margileo)
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ ¦ +->Shallya (la Purificatrice, Salyak)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Khaine (Bourreau, Manticore, Scorpion, Faucon, Taure, Guerrier navré, Panthère de fer, Porteur de mort)
¦ ¦ × Gia ✝ (Gea, la Déesse Mère)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Herkati (Ecaté)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->Atharti
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ × Morai-Heg (Corbeau, Corneille)
¦ ¦ ¦
¦ ¦ +->les Banshees
¦ ¦
¦ +->Anath Rema (Ahalt)
¦ ¦
¦ +->Lœc (Adaman, Cegorach)
¦
+->Morai-Heg (Corbeau, Corneille)
¦ × Khaine (Bourreau, Manticore, Scorpion, Faucon, Taure, Guerrier navré, Panthère de fer, Porteur de mort)
¦ ¦
¦ +->les Banshees
¦
+->Vaul ✝
×
¦
+-> Hœth (Véréna, Clio, Renbaeth, Scripsisti)
x Sarriel (Mórr, Gazul, Forsagh)
¦
+->Myrmidia (la Furie, Margileo)
¦
+->Shallya (la Purificatrice, Salyak)
✝ = dead god (killed by Slaanesh, Khaine or Ellinil).
The very principle of polytheism is that there are many gods who constitute, together, a supra-human society with whom interact the human society. Those gods are numerous, but a same god, say Mórr, isn't described or worshipped the same way in all place of the Old World. That is why the concepts of heterodoxy or orthodoxy are not applicable to a polytheistic world...
There are, however, other Powers from the warp, who constitute a very distinct society of gods: the Chaos gods. This label encompass Chaos gods, Renegade Chaos Gods, and Law Gods. They aren't part of the Old World's gods society, hence they aren't part to the Old World's men society. They are even at war with those society, seeking their utter subversion or their total destruction. That is why their cults are indeed and of course forbidden in the Old World.
It can even be argued that those Chaos Gods do not really constitute a society together. Their relations are chaotic. Each god is the subject of a
quasi monotheistic cult. Perhaps that the Sigmarite apparent obsession with orthodoxy betray a Solkanian successful corruption on it ? That might explain this otherwise very weird aspect.