Religion

An excerpt from Of Gods and Monsters: The Religion Riddle by Abhirati Rensin:

One must take into consideration the significant effect that religion has upon racial identity. The elves may seem aloof and overprotective of their forest homes at first glance—and by equal measure, the orcs irrationally bloodthirsty. But knowing that the elves believe their gods to be the spirits of the very domains which they inhabit—Ethaea the goddess of the forest by the same name, or Aunarion the lord of the Lake Aunarion—is it truly so strange that the elves fought to their last breath to defend the realm of Ehldehvar? When the Amaranthine Legions stripped the great forest, not only were they forcing the elves from their ancestral home, but in the eyes of the elves, they were also killing the god of the forest—a being to which they attributed their existence. Cast in this light, the elves are not so very different than their human tormentors, many of whom would spill their last drop of blood for Emperor Gaius.

The orcs, too, can only accept so much blame for the violence that boils in their blood. Their god—Erishkigal, the Great Devourer—consumes the dead in order to sustain the living. The Devourer is ravenous, insatiable: if he will inevitably have blood, is it not preferable that the orcs incur this wrath willfully than fall victim to their own wicked deity? An orcish raider might embark on his warpath with the intention of ensuring that his mate and children are spared by Erishkigal’s hungry eye. How many of humankind, with their plethora of gods and idols, can claim the same degree of devotion?