An excerpt from “Gods, Deities, and other powers to take seriously and avoid pissing off” by the Bard Rufus the Well Travelled.
And then finally you have the new kid on the block
Mithra the Lightbringer
The new guy, Mithric worship is at best three centuries old, he’s a toddler by god standards. Born a mortal man in the Thousand Isles, his religion is a mishmash of western and eastern beliefs, borrows a lot from Mbo (which is a whole nother religion story, that will be another book entirely) and is heavily associated with the Sun and light. While originally a small cult, it has been growing rapidly the last hundred years or so, mostly due to the proselytism of an extremely devoted and active priesthood and fervent set of followers.
“Hello friend, sorry to interrupt you at home but may I tell you about our Lord of Light, Mithra?”
The story and legend of the life and deification of Mithra is too extensive for this essay, but most of it seems to have actually happened. He is generally seen as a proletariat, blue collar god, one of the people, entirely on the side of mankind and the mortal world even to the point of giving his mortal life for his followers (as his legend claims). His priests disdain worldly possessions or wealth, give all they have to the poor and minister endlessly to the needy, sick or downtrodden. There are also many warrior clerics and paladins among them, constantly at the forefront of battling monsters and other threats to civilization.
The motto of the Mithrac priesthood is “Bringing the light into dark places” and in my experience they generally live up to that. They can be frightful stick-in-the-muds though.
There are also rumors of hidden mysteries and secret upper level initiations in the mithraic priesthood, I would not know anything about this since admittance into these mysteries of the uninitiated is strictly forbidden. I would never for instance and strictly hypothetically don a disguise, impersonate an initiate, sneak into any of those gatherings and participate in those rituals just to sait my idle curiosity. But it is absolutely true there are some weird and hidden things going on there. Seem mostly harmless though unless you are a bull
This religion is not loved by the more established priesthoods of the older gods. Not only does the rapid growth threaten their base of followers (and if I can indulge in a bit of snark their revenue stream), but the Mithric priests, while showing respect and tolerance to other gods and beliefs, often insinuate that those other gods are a bit on the self serving side and don’t really care about you the way Mithra does. They also have unkind things to say about the more established priesthoods, especially their love of wealth and ostentation. They draw comparisons that, while accurate in the opinion of this author, are not appreciated by the hierarchy of the older religions.
This is the god in this list that you are most likely to fight alongside to save the world of man from the evil whateveritis.
While still relatively uncommon in Mythras, the religion is growing fast, especially in Valoria, and has become dominant in the The Thousand Isles.