Deification (OOC) (Mature)

[Meany]

   Hello!  This is the friendly neighborhood Meany calling in to try my hand at forum roleplay.  Probably won't take, but still.
Deification.
Introduction: You were great Gods and Goddesses of your realm.  Each of you had a city to your name, and vast power at your disposal.  The mortals worshiped you as you deserved.  None dared to darken your door for you were mighty, and would crush them.  And this was your undoing.  Each and every one of you were betrayed by your own King.  Fear of you had grown in him until he lashed out and tried to destroy you.  By and large, he succeeded.  Many of your brothers and sisters are dead; and their cities now give worship to your former King.  With dwindling options, you have all fled south, to the rocky islands which spawned your cults.  Here dwell tribes of mortals, giving worship to archaic depictions of yourselves, and still operating with Stone Age technology.  You have now a chance to start over.  But what will you do with it?

Setting: You will be operating in a chain of mountainous islands, the chain itself has no name, but the individual islands have their own names, depending on the player character it gives worship to.  These islands have no safe harbors, and are so inhospitable that most of your worshipers have burrowed deep into the rock, forming caverns in which to live, grow, and kneel to you.  You come from an Bronze Age setting to a Stone Age setting, so behave accordingly with regards to technology; social and economic conventions are up to you.

Disambiguation: Yes, you the players are gods/goddesses.  You are long-lived, mighty, and not of the material plane.  You are not all powerful. There are limits to what you can do, primarily based on the number of worshipers you have, and the faith they place in you.  Since your fall, you have lost the bulk of your powers, and so will be limited even further.  Rest assured, your lives will not be easy.  Divinity, or no.

Mission Statement: The purpose of this roleplay is to have fun.  To explore what can be done with such monumental power that you are effectively gods.  To build a society from the ground up.  This is a game, so let loose and enjoy yourselves.

That said, anyone interested?

Template!
Name: Naming conventions are up to you lot.  You are the gods, after all.
Depiction: What you look like, and the preferred manner in which you are depicted by your followers.
Domain: What is your primary purpose in the cosmology?  If you intend to use an umbrella phrase, like Winter, please explain what specific areas are covered by your umbrella.
Titles: What names have you earned to go with your power and cunning?
Island: They're all inhospitable spits of rock.  Give yours some personality.
Origin: How did you, specifically, come to exist?  Feel free to use propaganda.
Temperament: What is your personality?  Give your god some quirks!
Clergy: How does your cult go about worshiping you?
Symbols: What images are associated with you?
Backstory: How has your life been up to this point?  Adventurous, I hope.
Family Tree: Have yourself some mortal children running about?  Describe them here.  Feel free to confer with others to create a little family tree of the gods.

Current players:

SquirrelWizard	Masota	Luck, Trickery, Adventure
Corgatha Taldothar	Jerrel	Law, Cataloging, Tactics
techmaster-glitch	Zaltan	Knowledge, Invention, Curiosity
AmberCross	Aellor	Chaos and Order, Weather (particularly storms), Astronomy, Possibilites/Chance
Tezkat	Tezkatl	The Night Sky, Moon, Dreams, Messengers, Shape-shifting, Death/Birth (spiritually), Boundaries
Techcubi	Kuntorus	The Hunt, Wilderness
VAE	Horiv	The Earth, Underworld, Ore, limited Agriculture
Inumo	Kesh'Noria	Devotion
Kafziel	Kumbha	The Sea and Oceans
Dr. Hatari	Gys	Life
Cogidubnus	Oshye	Victory, Lost Cause
Previewer	Ainos	Time
Arclane	Tharsus	Fire, Volcanoes, Lava/magma
e_voyager	Volare	Kindness, Guidance
Ashen Star	Sombriel	Death <physical>, destruction, endings, murder, decay

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

This sounds *very* neat. I'm interested.


I would like to know, however, how..... *gropes for the right phrase* mentally elemental we are? Suppose I play some sort of Winter God, embodying concepts like stasis, rest, stability, would I be able to see the need for counter-portfolio solutions, even if they're not really in my guy's "sphere"?

[techmaster-glitch]

After expressing disinterest, I am suddenly interested. I call dibs on God of Knowledge/Construction   A general pacifist, but I also imagine someone's going to be a God of War at some point."Win" or "lose", this should be fun.

[Meany]

If you need counter-portfolio solutions, (thank you Techmaster, for the translation), you can adapt.  But adapting a force which represents a force of the universe takes time.  You'd need to learn about it, and modulate your self image to acclimate the change, and risk loosing proficiency with your old powers.  Of course, if you need something done fast, and done well, there are other Gods/Goddesses floating around that you could negotiate aide from.  Just avoid the trickster.  He probably caused the problem in the first place.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Other cosmology questions. I know we're powered by our worshipers, but how did the world and people and gods come to be set up? (do the gods even know?) Is there an afterlife, and if so, what is the divine effect on it? Do we get to have any say in what happens to the souls of our worshipers? Do we get to bend the rules and steal souls that by all rights we shouldn't have?  Who regulates the gods actions, outside of the feeding power from mortals thing?


Lastly, is there some sort of template bio sheet we can use to shape a submission, or should we just freeform?

[SquirrelWizard]

ohhh nice, so what happens if we're a god of trickery and adventure?

[Meany]

The gods were born from the mortals.  Who needed explanations of what happened to the world.  That's the prevailing theory amongst them.  But this implies you are children of the mortals, so most tend to ignore it.  Claiming to have been born alongside the planet itself, to govern that which if uncontrolled, would cause havoc. 

The player who's god is of the Afterlife, or of Death with a stipulation to include the after-death would have the souls of the dead.  Those souls belong to that player, and he needs to provide for them in addition to his living followers.  But you should find ways of stealing.  Just as he/she/it will find ways of stealing from you.  Actions have consequences.  You don't have much power at the beginning, due to your low population of worshipers, but you can do small things.  Those small things should have chain reactions if you can think of them.  But aside from me being the GM, here are some rules of thumb.

• No one god can have more power than the collective.  You've all learned your mistake in regards to your King.
• The more unnatural what you're trying to do, the more energy it'll cost you.  This also relates to how long you attempt to make it last, or how quickly you do it.  Something on the scale of Noah's flood would leave you comatose for decades, if not centuries.
• You all can be in more than one place at once by default.  This is useful because in order to die, all of you needs to be in the same place at the same time.  However, this period is when you are absolutely your strongest.  Many of you should be lingering around the Divine Realm-presently a Board Room of sorts-to confer with each other at a whim.  Which means other gods should be right there to knock your teeth out if you cross a line.

Squirrel, clarify your question, please?

[SquirrelWizard]

well, what if you are a loki style trickster god. One who pushes the issue? IE, "Oh ho! So you say that ship is unsinkable?... I so do love a challenge."

except the god isn't evil. He merely favors, and encourages, those who push the envelope while striving to do what would normally be considered impossible or within the realm of the gods themselves.

[Meany]

That would be acceptable.  You have free reign to create the gods and their personalities.  Just don't have a God of War who wields a bouquet of flowers, or something to that effect, and all shall be good.

In other news, character template in the works.

[Meany]

Excuse me for the double post, but announcing that the template is up.

Pardon me while I go iron my hands to make up for the double post.

[SquirrelWizard]

Name: Masota

Depiction: Masota has many forms. Her appearance changes depending on what she is trying to accomplish. But, she usually appears as a humanoid of varying degrees of humanity with either traits of a fox or squirrel, sometimes even combining the traits of all three. Those few who have seen her always comment about her piercing green eyes, flaming red hair, and her lilting voice.

Domain: Masota focuses in Luck, Trickery, and Adventure. While a patron of Trickery, she tends to favor ingenuity and cleverness over outright trechery. And, for adventure, she favors pushing boundries, and (re)discovery. She dabbles in many other aspects but only focuses on those above.

Titles: Laughing Siren, The Green Eyed Succubus, The Fickle One

Island: Extinct Volcano on the northern end of the island. A few patches of volcanic soil, but mostly rugged forest and underbrush. There is a natural harbor (note: natural doesn't always mean safe) which consists of extremely pointy jagged rocks, steep granite cliffs, and a pebbally beach. Detrius and debris collect in the cove.

There are natural predators on the island which are large squirrel like creatures that grow to the size of small dogs (think wolves but just a smidge smaller) that are omniverous, and are the premier predator on the island's surface but they are not overly aggressive. They are trumped only by the Land Squids (Balls of rubbery tentacles with a wicked beak in the center) that lurk in the caverns of the Volcano's caldra.

Origin: Masota came to being when the first man was about to sucumb to severe injury. When Death came to take his soul to the underword; the man said, "Wait, I am the first of my kind. I have stood up from the realm of beast and have set forth to see for myself, to forge my own destiny. I am no animal who has lived and died by instinct and strength alone, but have used my mind to plan, to craft, to thrive. Grant me this! This one last exercise of my mind, a wager as it were. Bring me a board, checkered with squares of color, and some pieces and I shall play a game of Pago with you. It is a simple game of my design, I played it with my sons, and I shall play it with you. Should you win, I shall go with you, otherwise I go free." Death's eyes seemed to glint with scruitany but he did as told and brought forth the board and pieces.

After explaining how the game worked, they began to play the game in ernest. While the man had experience on his side with the game, Death was a very fast learner. After what seemed like an eternity of grueling play, the game came to an impassible stalemate. Seemingly satisfied, Death approached the man as if to usher his soul to the beyond, when the man merely smiled, "My soul is not yours to take. For while the game is over, you did not win." This caused death to pause as he considered the events that had just transpired. Death's grin seemed to twist, as if what this man had done caused him some sort of twisted mirth. With a wave of his skeletal hand, he returned the man to the land of the living, alive, but forever crippled by his injuries.

But, he was not the only thing to return from the mythical beyond. A force from the beyond was brought into the world. Sparked by the mans ingenuity and luck, Masota was born, named Masota for graceful/luckful lady.

Temperament: Masota is most well known for her fickleness. While she seemingly randomly grants her boons to those in need, she is just as likely to withold them. She favors people who strive to make their own luck, but looks poorly at those who constantly supplicate her for her boons, utilize her gifts without proper humility, or squander her blessings on trecherous mechanizations or paltry task. Masota loves to counterdict mortals, especially those who are haughty enough to wild claims. Masota is not particularly vindictive, but she likes to be thorough. She may work against many people but very few actually incur her wrath.

Personality wise, Masota enjoys her work, watching as her influence affects history. She can be a bit of a hedonist as she enjoys herself, but her fickle nature and rather short attention span means she never focuses upon one thing for too long.

Clergy: There is very little in centralized religion, as most prayers or supplications are done on a personal level. Either alone or under one's breath. Masota's clergy typically fill in the cracks of society, by either providing opportunities for one to grow, or by selectively weeding out unwanted elements.

There are roughly two sides to her openly devout followers. The clergy, who serve as tutors and teachers. They manage the affairs of the church. And the "Paragons" are a sect of warriors and specialist, glory seekers and soldiers of fortune, which act as Masota's physical arm in the world.

Symbols: Acorn, sometimes a set of dice.

Backstory: Masota spent her time roaming the countryside laying forth a large swath of chaos. Where heroes and ledgends were born, she was there. Where nations fell, and conquerers plundered, she was there. When the God King moved against the others, it is said that she assisted him in his endevors; not personally, but not through denial of the powers under her control, and as she was pushed out of the realm, her final words to him were to remind him of how insubstantial luck can be and, when his runs out, she will be there when he falls.

Family Tree: Masota has yet to have any children, nor is she related to the other gods through blood.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Name: Jerrel.

Depiction: Jerrel appears as a vast human male, standing roughly 14 feet tall and weighing close to 2000 pounds. He has coal black hair , and a square, trimmed beard. He has flecks of gray at the temples, but the musculature of a much younger man, with sad, deep set slate eyes. His shoulders are broad, and his body is lean. He typically wears a flowing white robe, and is indistinct under it where  the folds reveal his body. When acting in an official capacity, in front of mortals, he dons Impartiality, an ornate, feathered mask, impassive and stern, and his voice changes, becoming deeper and rougher.

Domain: Jerrel is the Lawgiver and Cataloger, and he views his purpose as to promote divine efficiency, not only making sure that the rules are obeyed, but that the rules themselves are just, and promote benign, industrious behavior. While not a war god, he has a martial aspect, but he is more concerned with organization and logistics, with strategy and planning, than with crude slaughter.

Titles: The Masked Judge. The Bookbinder. To his priests when they are Inside, he is simply Master. To his progeny,(see below) he is The Appointer.

Island:  Jerrel's cult is from the island of Teleothial, a small, barren rock on the end of the world. It is not particularly fertile, and there is only limited agriculture. Animal husbandry gets a bit further, and on the coast fishing is the primary means of feeding people. The island is almost completely flat, and there is sufficient rainfall in the northernmost spur to support a sparse woodland. There is no natural harbor, but at monumental effort, a small but serviceable quay has been dug out along the eastern shore, making a crude but somewhat serviceable harbor and boatworks. The weather, however, tends to be unpredictable, and many accidents occur, making boat travel unsafe.

There are no major cities, villages dotting the island at an almost uniform concentration, and the only elaborate structure to be found is The Temple. The Temple is divided into two sections, the Courtyard, where anyone may enter, and doubles as the administrative center for the Island. The inner section is only accessible by the clergy, and even they rotate service inside. Entering while not being called upon to serve carries the death penalty. Indeed, that is primarily what the inner section is known for, as the condemned are to "Greet Jerrel in his Home.", and are cut down when they are pushed through the doorway.



Origin: Once, a rich farmer hunted a fox who was known to make off with his chickens. He roused his hounds, and gave chase to the vulpine intruder. He pursued the fox down a lane and into a quiet forest, throwing darts, but connecting with none. A tracker, hearing the noise, went to investigate, and with one sure toss, impaled the fox on his javelin.

At once, the two men quarreled over who had ownership of the fox's remains. The farmer said that as it was his quarry, he had first right to it, and that the tracker had no business interfering. The tracker said that it was his skill and industry which brought the beast low, and by rights the pelt should be his. The two raised their hands against one another, but before blows were struck, MY voice rang, Pronouncing that lo, the hunt of the fox was a good for ALL, and that it is the sacred duty of all men to advance the cause of their community. The pelt was to go to the farmer, for it was his stock that had been taken by the beast, and he was a pillar of the folk in the way that the hunter was not, but I Decreed that he was to pay compensation, in the form of three hens and a new spear, to the hunter, in payment of his skill.

Following this exercise, I was able to Manifest,  and soon I was to bring all of Teleothial under my rule, for before, men had none to guide them in their pursuits, waging a war of all against all. I put an end to it, and from their My Doctrine spread, eventually touching the hearts of all men.

Structuring, Chapter 2, Lines 1-6

Temperament: Jerrel is almost always completely impassive, speaking primarily in declarations or observations. He only barely understands mercy, or pity, and while he can make exceptions to his rules, it is only by formulating that the rule itself would produce an undesirable outcome in the current situation, and will immediately try to reformulate the rule so that it covers the unintended circumstance. He considers the other deities sovereign, and unless they submit to his authority, he will not overly concern himself with their actions. Mortals he views as little more than peons to be ordered about, for their own good.

Clergy:  Worship of Jerrel takes two primary forms, inner service and outer service. Inner service refers to the inner section of the Temple, and is as such only available to the priesthood. (Priests are ordained by higher ranking priests following a testing ceremony focusing primarily on logic and memorization skills. The highest ranking of priests, those allowed to serve Jerrel and his progeny directly, are only appointed by the god himself.) Inner service consists of compiling legal compendia, executing troublemakers, cleaning up the temple, and educating the Appointed. Inner service never lasts for more than a year at a time, and the priests are absolutely forbidden to speak of what occurs inside the temple, even to other priests who have reached such a rank as to be able to go in themselves.

Outer service covers everything else, and is demanded of both the clergy and lay people. Essentially, it is merely a requirement that one live harmoniously with their fellows, and that they resort to the judgment of the priesthood/courts to resolve major disputes rather than engaging in self help. Violence against other people is almost never permitted, although personal deals and pacts are allowed, even encouraged. There is little ritual involved, Jerrel seeming to view that the quiet running of his island is itself an act of worship.


Symbols: Jerrel's primary symbol is a fasces. In times of war, the rods are bladed on the outside, but are otherwise just sticks. Secondary symbols include a set of scales, with human hearts on them, a shield with an unrolled scroll device, and a blank, solemn mask.

Backstory: Jerrel rarely ventures from the inner temple, at least not in his primary form. He often creates wandering personae, traveling the land anonymously, so he can see what is going on around him. The only time he will leave the temple in his own name is to pronounce a supremely important decision; he is the highest appeal possible. He sometimes mediates disputes among the gods, but always does so in remote, inaccessible places, far from prying mortal eyes.

When he needs something done in the mortal realm, he either sends his clergy to do his bidding for him, or, in rare cases, one of his children.

Family Tree: Jerrel does not acknowledge kinship with any other deities. (This is open to modification, pending future players joining and wanting to make some sort of bond). Very, very rarely, in times of great need, Jerrel will call for a mortal woman to be brought to his temple. She is always selected on the basis of being the highest ranking priestess that is still within childbearing years. Jerrel will sire a child, known as the Appointed.
   
The appointed are raised in the temple by the priests, and are trained from the time they can understand that they are being addressed to redress a single, specific wrong that Jerrel had in mind when siring them. They are given whatever instruction Jerrel considers necessary to right the wrong, and are then sent out. If they fail, Jerrel will take another priestess and try again. If they succeed, they report their father, and Jerrel embraces them, snapping their necks. The appointed know that they are to die at the end of their tasks, but are indoctrinated to view this as a positive, the fulfilling of a divine destiny.

Currently, there is one appointed, a babe, who will be charged with slaying the King who dared to drive Jerrel and the other gods from the mainland.


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Hope this is good enough.

[techmaster-glitch]

Name: Zaltan

Titles: The Keeper Of Books, The Scholar, Great Inventor/Builder, King Of Craft, Teacher And Learner

Depiction: Zaltan has two preferred forms when a mortal glimpses him; a silver-haired young man in a large, unhooded tan robe, and always carrying a scroll or book, and a silver-haired young man dressed in carpenter's or smith's fatigues, and carring a carpentry or metalworking hammer.

Domain: Knowledge and Invention (or in other words, Curiosity and Ideas). Zaltan embodies two stages of an abstract concept; one, the drive to acquire knowledge, and two, the cleverness to apply it. He inspires his followers to reach greater heights and learn all they can about the world, and the wit to use it, being the literal thirst for knowledge and will to apply thus knowledge in humans. Since the mass deicide, Zaltan is one of the weakest of any of the remaining gods, not even having the power to physically manifest and having very little power to work miracles in the physical realm beyond leaving the occasional clue for his followers. This is made up for that, thanks to his influence, Zaltan's followers have gotten quite good at figuring things out and discovering things for themselves, which Zaltan encourages in every way he can. However, where convenient or necessary, he will attempt to give a direct flash of inspiration to a particularly dedicated follower.

Island: The island of Zaltan's followers is decently sized, covered mostly in spares trees and plenty of scrub bush. There are some natural predators around the island, but despite all this, Zaltan's people have already moved out of their caves and established surface settlements, generally ringed by defensive wooden walls with a spike trench to keep out beasts. The island has little in the way of resources, either by edible plants or usable ores, as the island has was mined out long ago. Zaltan is working rectifying both of these problems with his highly limited god-power. Due to this, his followers are struggling to survive, not being particularly skilled hunters or warriors aside from making good traps, and also the aforementioned few plants suitable for farming. However, his followers have already learned to use fire as a tool, and while there isn't enough ore or larger-scale metalworking projects, they have found samples enough and already made metal hand tools that are better than stone ones. While there are no harbors any safer than the other islands, Zaltan's followers have already begun to excavate one and fill it with rigging and docks to create something better than simple rowboats. They have also learned how to create wheeled carts to transport materials easier. At the moment, however, Zaltan's greatest focus is getting his tribe to begin unraveling the deeper meanings of mathematics, and realizing that the stars move in predictable patterns.

Origin: On one of the origin islands, there was a tribe of people who had managed to secure their village well enough against preadators that they could simply relax every now and then. At one point, one human made a small deal with another, but the next day, the other human had forgotten the exact words of the deal. The first human began thinking that things would be much better if they had a way to keep things they know and say in some kind of permanenet form. While carving a few stone tools next a boulder, he slipped and accidentally put a scratch on the boulder. He looked at it, and realized the scratch would still be there the next day. He made a few more scratches in specific patterns, and though to himself "What if these scratches represented sounds in our Language?" He showed tis to the other villagers, and writing and reading--the process of recording an instant of knowledge permanently--was born, and an essence of a new god began to take shape.
  The tribe progressed, and everyone in it got into the habit of writing down important things, and passed this skill to the next generation. The tribe then got into the habit of observing the world around them, and recording it with their writings. A human then saw another human observing something that he himself had already observed and recorded. This human then got the idea that instead of everything observing things on their own, they could take advantage of these records outside of everyone's own mind, and allow someone to benefit from something that someone else has already observed, making learning things faster. The tribe then stored all the writings together, and the first Library, the first repository of Knowledge, was built. The god-essence took more shape.
  Another generation passed, and the first Library expanded. A human, one day, was frustrated with his stone tools, which were inadequate as he was trying to carve a larger rock to remove it from his path. He looked through the Library for Knowledge, and learned that someone had discovered very hard "rocks" in the ground, but they weren't in a useable shape and he could not figure out how to reshape them. Some searching later, he found another record from a particularly cold season that water that has become like a rock itself in the cold will return to liquid when exposed to fire and become a new shape when it becomes a stone again. The human then wondered if the same thing would happen to these super-hard stones if he exposed them to fire. After experimenting, he met with success, and discovered how to shape metal, thanks to combining Knowledge in a new way. The god-essence grew again.
  Another generation passed. By this time, parchment and ink had been discovered, much more compact than stone tablets, and there was an entire group within the village dedicated to writing everything down. The rest of the villagers found that they could use Knowledge to make other things with their hands, things made of several individual parts joined together in ways that bound them, but still allowed them to move. These Crafts were always made to fulfil some task. Gaining new Knowledge, and using the Knowledge to Craft, became important enough that the villagers finally gave the thirst for Knowledge, and the will to Craft it, a name.
  Zaltan was then truly born.
 
Temperament: Zaltan is relatively pacifistic, and encourages his own followers to tend towards the same. He doesn't interact with other gods much, and is usually blank and soft-spoken anyway, except when he thinks he's learning something. Because he's hardly interacted with other gods much, and especially since his near-death at the hands of the King, he tends to act cloistered and mistrustful, but that doesn't mean he ever stops observing and studying. When he does talk to other gods, he has a tendency to refer to them by title.

Clergy: As a god of an abstact concept, the closest thing he gets to worship and a temple is a library in the center of all the settlements his followers have made. One of Zaltan's very few direct edicts is to always record everything, and thus, all his followers are literate, and write down everything the see and observe on stone tablets, which are kept in the 'library'. The closest thing to clergy are the eldest and most knowledgeable humans on the island, who are the keepers of the library. They are hard at work attempting to recreate a form of proto-parchment, the idea given from flashes of visions from Zaltan, using the scrubs around the island. This project has been met with some limited success. The sages are also charting the movements of the stars, convinced that when the docks are complete and a large enough vessel to safely escape the treacherous waters built, they will need a way to navigate, and the predictable patterns of the stars provide just that. In addition to the knowledge the sages keep, many of the people on the island take the knowledge and find ways to use it, finding a new way to make wooden armor and bows (as they have not yet found enough ore for significant metalworking), and have begun experimenting with devices incorporating pulleys and springs. Closely related to Zaltan's first edict of recording everything is to learn from what is observed; whenever his followers see something (or someone) who does something better than they can, to watch and learn how to do it themselves and improve upon it.

Symbols: His followers usually use images of a scroll or book to refer to him.

Backstory: In Zaltan's heyday, he used his power to nurture the minds of the humans who were already quite intelligent. Under his subtle guidance, many cities established great libraries and other centers of learning, the partakes of which then took what they learned and used it to build ever greater structures, and shape materials in better ways. Zaltan--being primarly the literal human drive to understand hw the world works, and how to make the world work for them--eventually grew less active and more passive as time went on. He entered a slumber-like state, where his power simply remained to sustain the minds of humans so that they could be more and more independant. Zaltan was of course as aware of the other gods as they were of him, but Zaltan did not concern himself with them. The more knowledge huamns gained, the more power Zaltan gained, but at the same time, the more indepentant the humans becauise because of their knowledge, the deeper Zaltan slid into slumber. And he was fine with this.
   Up until the god-king's mass diety slaughter.
   Zaltan was caught near completely unprepared as he slept, almost all his aspects caught in the same instant. Only the sheer power he had gained from the sum of human knowledge allowed several shreds of his essence to escape. In panic and confusion, he followed the most familiar thing he could--the fleeing essences of the other gods who barely escaped the godking's wrath, as they went in the direction of their collective birthplaces.

Family Tree: Zaltan has no children, mortal or immortal.  However, he never talks to or about Kuntorus, and his dogged avoidance suggest there is some history between them.

[AmberCross]

Name: Aellor

Depiction: Due to his nature, it is disorienting to look at Aellor for long. He changes at a rate just slower than your eyes can follow (or perhaps just more quickly) and the net result is that you won't be able to notice him change but will abruptly become aware that he is different. In more orderly parts of his cycle he may appear as an assortment of spheres (stars or planets usually) floating near each other or perhaps an ordinary looking man that appears to be made of a fractal pattern when you look closely. In less orderly parts of his cycle, he has been known to be a man with lighting in his eyes, a floating cloud, a panther shaped darkness, an ordinary looking attractive woman, nothing at all, and a blinding ball of light all in the same conversation.

Domain: Chaos and Order, Weather (particularly storms), Astronomy, Possibilites/Chance

Titles: The Fractal God, The Everchanging, Harbringer of Chaos, various other nicknames that come and go.

Island: Picture a crescent island. Now ring it all the way around in rocky cliffs. Now add a really tall mountain to the side away from the bay. This is the general gist of it. The waters are treacherous due to reefs and the cliffs appear barren, though riddled with caves where people tend to live. There are more hospitable lands between the bay and the mountains and cliffs where the population gets food from a combination of hunting (and fishing) and low level farming. The island is surrounded by fierce winds and there is no safe route to or from this island. Every time going through will need a different route due to prevalent wind direction and it takes both skill and fast reactions to safely navigate. See 'chaos surfing' under 'clergy' for more information about this.

Origin: When all things are possible, and all possible things happen at once, certain things will happen more times than others. In the chaos that is everything, patterns will arise, events will converge, certain things will always come to be. Such a thing was the creation of our world, such a thing was the creation of the one we call Aellor. Born as the sum of infinite possibilites, he is constant as the stars and as everchanging as the wind. He is ever in a cycle of creation and destruction as the order within him evolves into chaos and the chaos back into order.

Temperament: As an everchanging diety, Aellor tends to follow cycles. His core essence will remain the same for the most part, but he will go through periods of chaotic behavior where he does not seem to make sense and spins beyond understanding. Eventually these patterns will form into something that makes a bit more sense and he will stabalize for a while in a more orderly format. Each cycle of order tends to be a different sort of order than the other. They also last different lengths of time but will inevitably spin back into chaos for his to recreate himself.

Clergy: Different people find their calling to Aellor in different ways. Some will attempt to follow his pattern of chaos and order, reinventing themselves on a periodical basis. Some believe that even at his most chaotic there exists an order to him that is simply beyond their capability to understand and if they understood more of the world they may better understand their god. Some will even approach the destruction or chaos aspect and will offer up sacrifices by setting things into flame or wrecking that which is perfect. Whether worship is offered in philisophic thought, running through perfect snow, or flirting with a new guy every other week, all are considered equally viable methods of worship so long as the intent is there and the situation can be applied. Another popular sort of worship is chaos riding, usually done in heavy storms where a worshiper will throw him or herself into a chaotic situation and trust to chance and their own skill to see them through it safely. The trust in him, the faith that puts them in the situation, the skill and performance of those who dance through danger, and sometimes the death of those who don't make it all fuel Aellor's power. There are all sorts of ways to chaos surf, whether cliff diving, surfing, even navigating to and from the island.
    It is said there is a cave at the very top of the mountain whose path is guarded by fierce winds and treacherous footing that if one were to reach would automatically entitle the questent a boon from Aellor himself. Thus far, his worshipers have not bothered him to the point where he feels the need for priests or other such structured religion, but as time goes on this may change.

Symbols: Fractals of all sorts are considered holy symbols. Storms are also revered, especially blizzards. Aside from that, various things may be considered holy for a time for some reason or other before falling back into mundane nature. One week snails may be holy due to their spirals, come back a month or so later and the same person who told you this will clam snails are nothing special but the flower he is holding is holy because of the twelve petals. Those who follow Aellor can tell what is holy at any given time. It's kind of like a fashion trend sort of thing.

Backstory: When the great purge came, Aellor was like many others ripped apart. However it was as inevitable as his creation that he would reform from his remnants to live on and he has done so at this island far from the city he once ruled. He has yet to build it to any sort of advanced level and fragments still seem to be scattered, but he's working on it.

Family Tree: As one of the first gods, and a primary pillar of the universe, it is hard to say if Aellor has any relations with other primary universal forces. He does not have any children who currently live, though he has had children in the past. Due to his nature, he loses track of how many or when, but there aren't many in the first place. Considering the reincarnation aspect of Aellor's religion, it's even harder to say how many there were.


Some notes to clear things up: some may find a god of both chaos and order to be confusing. For the most intuitive answer, consider the universe is governed by entropy, a constant trend towards chaos. Yet out of this situation arose galaxies, and even life. The concept is not so terribly different from this. On a side note, by nature the population of my island is a very varied lot. Would it make sense for them to develop traits over their life with accordance to their interpretation of worship towards their god? A philosopher who studies the nature of things may take on a crystalline cast. A man who frequently chaos surfs with an airglider will grow feathers and eventually wings. Someone who often sacrifices things by lighting them on fire may develop a higher body temperature than normal, wind up with personal heat thermals, and eventually get hair of flames. The older the person is, the more exaggerated their 'traits' become. A possible explanation for this could be Aellor's essence filling the island and gradually absorbed/affecting people over time?

Edit: which is to say... stuff I thought of later and will now tack on like a tail to a picture of a donkey.

Ah, reminds me of something I forgot to mention last night. Aellor highly values creativity and therefore story-making (and telling) is a common hobby of those who follow him. A result of this is his people have no constant constellations and while they know the stars are the same, they constantly reinvent connections between them and meanings for these stars and constellations. The north star would always be the north star, but it can change from a man guarding the greatest treasure in the world to a mountain so tall it punctured the sky and the fixed point that remains is where the divine realm leaks through. Usually general associations such as good luck, or change of fate will remain the same. Dreams are considered the most inspired method of story creation and creativity though none can say whether the signs that arise from Aellor, if it's due to the person (similar to making an actual story), or something else entirely. Followers of Tezkatl would surely tell them it is from their god the dreams come from, but Aellor's people would be somewhat skeptical.

The last and probably most important thing I had wanted to mention was their belief of afterlife. These people (I REALLY need to come up with a name for them and their island non-plussed) belief that death is the devolvement (or evolvement) of the structure that is their lives into a state of chaos. It is generally accepted that their scattered souls will eventually come to pass again someday when they develop back into order and are born again. Like their own god's cycle of change, this rebirth cycle is considered to be sacred. To live forever would be to deny a vital part of themselves and similarly on the other side of the veil, to be forever dead would be just as tragic. As such Aellor's people don't fear death, though most would rather put it off for a while to fully experience life in any given incarnation before returning to the more scattered state of chaos. The 'souls' of these people exist in a state of emotion and instinct rather than higher thought. They might take the forms of animals, inanimate objects, disappear entirely for a time, exist in and among the fierce winds and raging storms that often surround their island, or sometimes just join with Aellor himself for a time.

[Tezkat]

Name: Tezkatl


Domain: He is a shapeshifter, bringer of sleep and ruler of dreams. He guides souls to newborn children and carries them away when they die. He is time's keeper and heralds the passage of days and months, and is also responsible for the cycles of tides and menses. He is the patron of boundaries and those who cross or guard them, often using his position to act as a messenger god. He was identified with the moon and the night sky. With the death of the sun, he now watches over the heavens alone.


Titles: (Formal) King of Dreams. Watcher on the Threshold. Messenger of the Gods. Bearer of Souls. Keeper of Time. (Casual) Dreamlord. Soulbearer. Shifter. Wayfinder. Moonspeaker. Starguide. (New/Temporary?) Lord of the Heavens. Twilight Sentinel. Celestial Guardian. (Obsolete?) Lord of Night. Night Sentinel. Nightlord. (Archaic) Eye of the Night. Shepherd of Souls.


Depiction: Traditionally represented as a jaguar with glowing white eyes and the night sky as his coat. He can adopt any appearances he chooses, however, and often communicates with people by taking the forms of those important to them.

Following the funeral of the sun, the dying embers of his lost love cover his fur with patches of dusty twilight.


Island: Active volcanoes continually reshape the landscape. Lush jungles and farmland spring up out of nowhere in the rich soil, only to be blasted out of existence as the cycle begins anew. The island is covered with many strange plants that bloom at night, nourished by the moon and stars, and most of the animals are likewise nocturnal. Bioluminescent insects and fungi shimmer in the night. The caves are holy places, and the deepest passages lead not only to the underworld but the lands of spirits and dreams. There are many hot springs said to have rejuvinating properties.

The most holy landmark is the Throne of the Jaguar, where the first men offered their souls to the King of Dreams. A megalithic obsidian henge rings the sacred monolith.


Origin: In the beginning, in the world before time, there was only everlasting day, where men toiled endlessly under the burning sun. Exhausted from their unending hunt, the men slumped in the shade of a large rock. The jaguar sunning himself on the rock looked down at them.

"Why are you sad?" asked the jaguar.

"We are tired and weary," said the men. "We hunt and gather all day and never find rest."

A sparkle shone in the jaguar's eyes. "I can give you the rest you seek," said the Jaguar, "if you but lend me your souls for a while."

The tired men agreed, and the jaguar spirited their souls away to serve him in the land of dreams, where he was king.

The sun came upon the sleeping men and asked, "What has happened to these men?"

"They were tired," said the jaguar, "so I brought them sleep. When they wake they will feel alive and refreshed."

The sun pondered this information. "I too am tired," said the sun. "I shine all day and never find rest."

A sparkle shone in the jaguar's eyes. "Come with me," said the jaguar. "I will show you to a place where you can sleep."

The jaguar guided the sun beyond the horizon, and night fell upon the world for the first time. The jaguar climbed up into the sky and became the moon, watching over the world while the sun and the men slept. When he returned them to the world, they felt so alive and refreshed that they agreed to come with him again the next night.

And so time was born. Each night, the jaguar would guide the sun and souls of men away, and each day he would return them once more. Days came and went. With the passing of days, months came and went. With the passing of months, seasons came and went. With the passing of seasons, years came and went.

The men called to the jaguar one last time. "We are tired and weary," said the men. "Take us to the land of dreams."

The jaguar shook his head. "Many days have passed," said the jaguar, "and with the days, the months, the seasons, and the years. You have grown old and can no longer serve me in the land of dreams. I must take your souls to their final resting place."

And so the jaguar carried the souls of the first men up into the heavens with him. They became the spots on his coat, shining as the stars that would forever watch over their children, and their children's children after them as he travelled across the sky.


Temperament: His mood is as mutable as the moon and the tides, swinging between great highs and lows. He's known to be a creative, slightly mischievous god with a fondness for riddles and hiding the truth in plain sight.


Clergy: Before the Betrayal, he was the traditional patron of messengers, navigators, gatekeepers, artists, performers, midwives, undertakers, astrologers, shapeshifters, and shamans. Although not necessarily their patron deity, burglars, harlots, assassins, and others who operated under cover of night often paid him tribute, as did most travellers and expectant parents. He figured prominently in rites concerning birth, death, adulthood, seasons, and divination.

He is credited with teaching man how to reckon time and read the stars. As time's messenger, he delivers prophecies and foretellings to mortals, usually through dreams and stars. His priests played an important role in interpreting these signs for lay folk.

Followers have a totemic animal or spirit beast that watches over them when they sleep. Becoming a true priest, or nahual, requires a pilgrimage to the land of spirits, where they must hunt their spirit guardian and defeat it. Wearing its skin allows them to take its form under the light of the moon. Among cultists on the island, only those who have walked with spirits and completed this rite of passage are permitted names or ranks in society. The rest are considered children or slaves.

The villagers are semi-nomadic, moving their settlements as the island reshapes itself. They are mainly active at night, ruling the land as both men and beasts. As boundaries are also his domain, they have developed elaborate systems for marking and crossing territories. They also build boats to travel beyond their borders, using the stars as their guide.

Traditional prayer times are at twilight (just before dawn and after dusk) and midnight. The full moon marks his holy day.

He rarely demands living sacrifices (which only make more work for him), although in ritual warfare followers will initially attempt to capture enemies alive so as to present the souls with proper ceremony. He generally prefers that his worshippers offer creative energies instead, such as artwork, poetry, song, and dance.


Symbols: The crescent moon is his symbol, usually accompanied either by stars or the rising/setting sun. The jaguar is his sacred animal, though metamorphic animals, nocturnal beasts, and those that change colour with the seasons also figure prominently in his mythology. Obsidian is considered a sacred material, used for building tools, weapons, and mirrors. The latter play an important role in rituals and divination, symbolizing the boundaries between worlds.


Backstory: Since the birth of their son, the Lord of Night and Lady of Day circled the heavens, dancing in step to the heartbeat of Time. They guarded the heavens in turn. Each day, the celestial lion poured life-giving warmth upon the earth. Each night, the celestial jaguar turned one moonlit eye to the sleeping lands of men while the other watched over the land of dreams.

From his throne of bronze, the King of Gods watched the celestial dance.

Every day, the sun rose into the heavens, and he asked, "Why do men sing praises to the sun, when I am King of Gods?" Every day, the jealousy in his heart burned hotter.

Every night, the moon rose into the heavens, and he asked, "Why do men sing praises to the moon, when I am King of Gods?" Every night, the bitterness in his heart grew colder.

His bitterness turned to madness. His jealousy turned to rage. "My light is the only true light!" he declared. He went to the Mistress of Song and demanded that men sing praises to him alone. When she refused, he raised his sword of bronze and ran her through. He would make sure that the prayers of men no longer reached the heavens. He would not rest until all men bowed down to him as the One True God. On the night of the dark moon, when the Lord of Night would not see his treachery, the King of Gods slipped beyond the horizon to slay the Lady of Day as she slept. And so began the War of the Gods.

The Lord of Night built a great pyre from fallen stars and lit it with fire from the heart of the earth. Fueled by the endless potential of dreams, the flames consumed the remains of the sun. They grew brighter and brighter until the whole sky was ablaze. They seared his flesh, and even now his coat glows with the embers of the dying sun. When the flames died, night and day were no more. The moon stood watch over the world from twilit skies. Time built a great mirror in the heavens to mark his mother's grave. Even in death, she would continue to keep time for the world.

Alone in the sky, the Lord of the Heavens knelt over the ashes and wept. As each tear fell upon the dust, it crystalized into a new egg, the embers igniting a tiny spark of new life. These were the Children of the Sun. One day they would grow bright and rejoin their father in the celestial dance. One day they would restore balance to the shattered heavens.


Family: Consort to the Sun, the union from which Time was born. After the Betrayer slew the Sun, Tezkatl cremated her body and spawned a clutch of cosmic eggs from the ashes. Each could grow into a splendid new sun, but he hadn't the strength to raise them alone. So he fostered them out to be adopted by other gods, that each might lend their power to restoring the heavens.

[Techcubi]

Name: Kuntorus

Depiction: For the most part, he looks like a well-muscled human, with black hair, and facial hair. For the most part, he wields a spear, and wears various animal-like headgear most of the time, which is what he's often depicted as wearing. He's also depicted as having a hunting net.

Domain: Wilderness/hunting

Titles: Grand hunter, great predator, ultimate hunter, and, Grand deity of the hunt

Island: Kuntorus' island is often known as the ultimate island of hunting. On it, are all the basics for the food chain's needs, including various predators and prey. It is decent-sized, with a large tribal village being located on a flatter part of the island, and, a tribal temple, which is where it is said Kuntorus spends anytime in the physical realm. There are rumors that in this temple, time goes faster than normal in the dimension, although, not very many people have been inside to believe it. Also, part of his group of followers includes a former pack of wolves, who he hyper-evolved to become anthromorphic.

Origin: In a tribe of barbarians, there lived a hunter, named Gursin. For the longest time, Gursin would only hunt for food, in order to feed his tribe. However, after all that time...He grew tired of the type of hunting he was doing. So...He began killing for sport, and for challenge. Although, a few barbarians of his tribe questioned him, many did the same, starting to hunt for sport on top of for need. One day, Gursin encountered a female alpha wolf. It is said for days they tusseled. Then, after about a week went by, Gursin plunged his spear through the wolf's heart. And, from this, and from the combined energy of the hunters...Kuntorus was born.

Temperament: Although, it is thought that one born from barbarian nature would be utterly savage, Kuntorus is a cunning hunter. With his birth, he helped give his followers many new methods of hunting. However, despite that, he's also a deity of strength. He admonishes those who would force their peoples to constantly rely on them, only teaching a select few their techniques, calling these deities weak, and egotistical. Due to this, he rarely, if ever, goes by Jerrel's ruling. Despite having a decent amount of respect for his brother, Zaltan, he often ends up keeping away from his brother, just as often. Also, due to his wilderness job, he also has a decent affinity with animals. Although, he often prefers them to be just as strong as his hunters.

Clergy: His tribe often goes out on an all-out hunt, once a week. Then, after this hunt's done, they bring the biggest trophy to his temple. Then, using one of his followers, he cuts off the head of the trophy. Usually, he will keep this. However, if he feels the one killed it did a great act of hunting, he gives the trophy to the one responsible for the kill. There are also other ways, such as giving a great weapon of the hunt to him in his temple.

Symbols: His symbol is often those of hunts, ranging from nets, to javelins, to even spears, and animal heads.

Backstory: After he was first 'born', Kuntorus appeared before the tribe of barbarians, in a flash of light. The barbarians immediately fell to the knees. After a few moments, he had them get up. He had begun teaching them methods how to hunt more effectively, making the barbarians more clever. After awhile of teaching the tribe, he decided that his tribe should hunt greater than just animals: That they should hunt other men. So, when a group of warriors from another tribe stepped into their territory, they found themselves quickly ambushed, and killed for trophies. After awhile, they started raiding other cities for their prey. After the king's betrayal, Kuntorus' barbarians were killed, and, he was forced to start anew, following the other deities to the south islands.

Family Tree: It is said that Kuntorus and Zaltan are brothers, though, neither usually seem to want to admit such a thing. As in regards to his children...Kuntorus often sleeps with various mortal woman, often wanting to create great hunters. However, unlike most other deities, he's definitely a parental figure, in the sense of the word most people prefer to think. He often teaches his children how to hunt, and, how to become stronger. Although his other children were slain, he has two living demis, currently. Luntarus, a demi, whose mother is one of the anthromorphic wolves that Kuntorus hyper-evolved. After he was done being nursed, he was taken to the temple, and, after eight months, came out, a sixteen-year old. As decreed by Kuntorus, Luntarus became the leader of the tribe. The second child, was Yutus, currently an infant, and the son of a human woman. Also, he decided to take his dead children to his realm. Currently, two are often seen with him. Turas, his first son, and, Morina, his first daughter.

[AmberCross]

Contents of this post moved to original thinga-ma-jig.

[techmaster-glitch]

Ouch. I've been informed that my diety's name is practically identical to "Zoltan", apparently -something- from the movie "Dude where's my car" (which I haven't seen), and thus, this is a point of comedey. A name-change is pending.

[Meany]

Corgatha Taldorthar; Accepted.

Techmaster-glitch; Accepted.

AmberCross; Accepted.

Techcubi; Accepted.

SquirrelWizard; Accepted.

Tezkat; Accepted.

[Kafzeil]

Edit: Profile yo

Name: Valkus

Depiction: A tall, commanding woman with long white hair, maroon eyes, and pale skin.Normally appears to people in bronze armour, usually carrying a shield and spear, with a sheathed sword on her side and a blood red cape. She also bears a long, jagged scar over the right side of her face.

Domain: Warfare, by means of tactics and skill. She embodies battle strategy, pragmatism in combat, and the patron of Generals, tacticians, and others who must lead the campaign.

Titles: The Conqueror, The Exalted General, The Queen of the Battlefield.

Island: of a medium size, it's fairly temperate, if slightly hostile, plagued with weather ranging from thunderstorms to winters most lethal. It has plenty of space, perfect for farming, and some impressive mountains, which, if one knows how to look have a decent amount of resources.  However, the biggest challenge is surviving the forces of nature long enough to be able to use these resources. Which strikes Valkus' fancy. Those who can prove their wit and mettle here would likely be the finest warriors.

Origin/Backstory: Long ago, a small Kingdom was on the verge of war. The Barbarian horde was innumerable, skilled in personal combat, and bloodthirsty, while the Kingdom was small, and consisted of farmers and fishermen. Many thought the Kingdom would fall, and the King sought the help of his neighbours. A clever King, he told his neighbours that once his Kingdom fell, the barbarians would turn on the others. His allies skeptical of victory, the King proposed an idea: The summer flooding would render most of the routes to the land unusable save one mountain pass. It was narrow, the barbarians sheer numbers mattered little. This would be where they would hold there ground. he next decreed that the weapons of war would be large, massive shields, long spears, and bows and arrows.

The arrows of the Kingdom would decimate the hordes before they reached the line, where an impenetrable line of shields and spears made any advance impossible.Facing heavy causalities, the barbarians retreated.

That night, the in his dreams, the King was visited by a white haired woman.  She asked him for a name, saying she had none. The King suggested Valkus, his people's word for spear. She smiled, telling the King she would always watch over his people and admire their clever appoarch to war.

Eons later, she would leave the city, her temple sacked, her worshipers slaughtered, the royal bloodlines she guided betrayed. as she left the burning city, she decreed the traitor would pay for his crimes, disappearing into the night shortly after that.

Temperament: While mostly calm, Valkus is fairly quick to anger. Nevertheless she much prefers staying ahead of her enemies and allies as much as possible. An honourable deity, the easiest way to incite her wrath is to break a pact, as she views disloyalty and betrayal as the greatest of sins. However, she will never betray anyone she considers and ally or has made a pact with her.

Clergy: Being a martial goddess, she prefers a smaller organization of priests and oracles,  and demands sacrifices in her name, though prefers livestock. He favoured worshipers are soldiers and military leaders, mostly before a battle.

Symbols: her trademark weapons, the spear and shield.

Family Tree:She has some children, but refuses to speak of them.

Strike-out for sucking.

[VAE]

Name: Horiv

Depiction: Generally depicted as a lynx with claws made of metal. It is said that if one interprets them correctly, the patterns on his fur map out the locations of ore veins and water springs, and his whiskers have the properties of lodestone.

Domain: Horiv rules over the earth, underworld where he resides, and all that is below. He is the patron of farmers and those who seek gems and ores. It is into his domain the Jaguar brings the souls of the deceased,   and it is him who makes sure their bodies merge with the earth so that new life can spring from it.

Titles:  One who prowls the Depths, The  Watcher of Souls, The Giver of Harvest, Guardian of Earth's Riches.


Island: A hilly island with relatively fertile land decent supply of ore underground. At least one of the mountains is a source of ferrite/magnetite.
The mountainous regions are rich in lakes and rivers.
Origin: It is said that when the Creator made earth, and separated it from the waters, the sound of his hammer  resounded through the universe. Far below the ground, Horiv  awoke, and began to wonder what is going on. For a long time the lynx dug and dug, fragments of his claws lodging into the earth and taking root, growing into ore veins.  When he finally reached the surface, it was twilight, and the Creator was no more, but the earth was barren and empty.
Horiv looked around, and noticed his shadow. Having nothing to do, he began to play with it, clawing and pounding the earth, and creating valleys and mountain ridges ... When he grew weary of the game , the lynx looked around in surprise on how the world was changed. He began to wash himself. Drops of his saliva falling on the ground began to flow as  lakes and rivers, and bits of his fur pierced the earth's surface and grew into the first trees. Once again, he glanced around, and saw the earth full of forests, hills, lakes and rivers, and took a liking of it.
Time passed, and the sun climbed up on the sky, shining on Horiv at the full of its strength. The light tired his eyes used to the perpetual dusk of the underworld, so he decided to return to his realm for a rest, but couldn't find the way by sight.
Noticing his whiskers pointed him to a place, the lynx followed, and surely enough, reached his hole.
Horiv could not make sense of it,  but then he noticed one of his whiskers lay near the entrance, broken off sometime during the day.
Promising to return to the new world above on the next evening, he returned to his underground realm, but not before plunging the whisker into the earth as a mark.
Ever since that day,  near places where Horiv moves between the worlds, one can find a magical ore, pieces of which move together if separated.

Temperament:  Horiv, like his cult animals tends to be most active during dusk , dawn and night. During dusk and the first half of the night, he takes care of earthly matters,while for the second half and during dawn, he prowls around the underworld, judging the souls of the deceased.The righteous rest until they are ready to walk the earth once again, prepare the meals for the deity out of sacrifices and aid to watch over the earth when the lynx  sleeps. In the meantime, souls of those wicked are re-wrought by fire and  blows of the hammer until they are fit to be people again.


Clergy: The priests of Horiv  maintain a population of temple cats - the animals that have been said to be the god's gift to man. Services are generally held during the dawn and the dusk, when Horiv is said to be most active. The general word is that due to his feline temperament, the response to prayers tends to be a little erratic, but once it happens, it happens more than fully. Followers bring him sacrifices of ore and livestock, the latter of which are usually eaten by the sacred cats (and the priests) , the remains being dug into the ground.
In times of war, the same is done with the enemies, giving the earth god more material to work the earth from.
His followers never burn their dead.
Farmers pray to him to give strength to their wheat to survive weather and pests and bring forth harvest, prospectors pray to have luck finding ores and gems, and everyone prays for their relatives to have a nice and comparatively short stay in the underworld.
It is said that earthquakes arise when the god doesn't receive enough sacrifices  and is hungry, the shaking being him pouncing on his prey deep underground.

Symbols: Felines of all sorts are a living symbol of Horiv.
Furthermore, lodestone and heliodor (the second resembling the eyes of the deity) are his sacred materials, and to a lesser extent, all metals.
His depicted symbol is a feline eye.
Caverns are often dedicated to his worship as well.

Backstory:
After man first appeared, he lived like the animals, hunting in the forests, As the numbers of men grew, prey became more and more rare.
One morning the lynx god was prowling across his land and met a man with a torch.
"What are you doing with a torch at dawn? " the lynx asked curiously.
"I am going to set fire to the forest to chase out some prey."
Horiv grew angry at the foolish man, threatening to punish him, but the man responded.
"Do what you wish, i won't live like this anymore. None in my village have eaten for days."
The lynx admitted the man was right, and asked to be taken to his village.
The man obeyed, and when they arrived, the lynx ordered him to call all of his people.
With a swipe of his claw, he tilled the ground near the settlement, and then scratched himself.
Fleas falling from his fur landed into the soil, and from each of them, a stalk of wheat grew, bearing harvest.
The lynx told the villagers how to eat the grain.
"The grain grows and breeds  the soil, just like the fleas bred in my  fur. As long as you will save a tenth part of every harvest, and return it to the soil it came from, it will grow anew in plenty and you shall never starve again."
The villagers rejoiced, and built a shrine in his honour.


       ****************
One day a thief of great skill by the name of Ira died and was brought into the realm of the lynx, and judged to be re-wrought.
While the lynx rested during the day, and only his followers were at guard, Ira said to himself. "I have tricked many of these during my life, why shouldn't i succeed after my death?"
As he said he had done, dressing a piece of wood into his own clothes while the one to guard him was looking elsewhere, and quietly sneaking away in the poor light of the underworld. Several like him followed, and soon the group reached earth's surface.
"We have gotten back to the world, but we lack bodies" they began to confer "When the lynx goes prowling around the world he shall surely notice us"
"We are thieves, brothers" said Ira, "We can steal the body of a nimble animal, one that can hide and sneak. That way, the lynx shall never find us"
As they said, they did, one finding a songbird, other a grasshopper, and Ira himself a forest mouse. But the animal's forms were twisted by their evil, most seen by Ira's - the mouse grew a long tail resembling a snake, great teeth, a cunning mind and the ability to bear disease.
And as days passed ,their vile kin spread all over the land.

Soon , voices reached Horiv in desperate prayer.
"We hunger, Giver of Harvest"
"Have you not been planting your crops like i commanded your ancestors to?"  the lynx asked.
"We were, and the harvest was plentiful, but what of it when it is being eaten by pests"
The lynx looked at the pests, retreated into his realm, and called forth those who served him.
"Have you watched over the souls of the wicked well ? Did none escape you?"
All but three of the souls present answered.
He called them forth;
"We have been tricked because of the darkness" they said, and explained what has happened.
The feline god thought for a moment.
"You have no guilt in what happened, but still, you have to go and correct your wrongs. However, for telling me the truth outright, i shall reward you"
The great lynx god went, and out of earth made figures in his shape. To it added claws made of sharpest stone, spine of springy willow, tail of a squirrel, and into the eyes he put two coals out of the underworld's furnace.
He gave the bodies to the three, and brought them to the people .To the three, he had said: "You shall stay here and slay every rat, locust and sparrow you see until you bring the missing souls back. Then you will be able to return to my realm. To make sure you are not fooled again , i give you eyes which can see in the darkest of nights, for they carry their own light in them"
To the people, he said:
"These are my gift to you to protect you from the pests that bring you hunger. Take care of them and your harvest shall be safe"

And since that day cats live with man, leap onto anything that moves, and having killed their prey they carry it off to Horiv to see if it's the one in which the soul of a thief resides. And at night, one can see the coals burning in their eyes, giving them sight even in the darkest of places.
    ******************************


The city of Horiv's people stretched in the mountains of the continent. Surprisingly ,they were able to grow quite enough crops to expand even in such a difficult region, a feat some attribute to the help of the earth god himself.
When the armies of the King of gods hit the city, the hardy mountain folk resisted for a time, having access to far more  primitive, but still metallic weapons and armours, and having a strategic advantage, enclosed by hills.
It is said that when the attacking armies broke the defenses, and entered the city, slaying everyone in their sight, the prayers of Horiv's priests were answered, the ground opened in a massive earthquake swallowing the city and the invading force.
For many years then, Horiv rested in his underworld lair before digging out to prowl the earth once again.


Family Tree:

Some say he is related to Tezkatl.

[Inumo]

Kneel before me, fools who hide behind those facades that you call gods!

Name: I am Kesh'Noria.
Depiction: I am naturally a ball of golden light, but I often take the form of a comely woman. However, that is not my only form, and in the past I have revealed myself as an old man, a priestess, a toddler, and even a tree. My shape matters not, and as such, my followers oft define me solely by a radiant glow around the form I have taken.
Domain: I am the Goddess of Devotion. All who give even a portion of their selves to a cause, to another, or to a practice pay homage to me, whether or not they intend to do so. However, I prefer the devotion given to me purposefully, as I rather dislike the practice of trickery and deception when it is unnecessary.
Titles: I have been under many names, but those that wish to refer to me without using my own oft call me the Light of the Soul, the Spirit of Focus, or the Shifter to Dedication.
Island: Until this recent business with the King, I had nearly forgotten about my island. Much like me, it can be many things to many people. In the most true sense, it is a pair of mountains, with nary five hundred feet appearing over the sea. What small valley exists between the two peaks holds the only vegetation that grows on the rocky isle. However, should one investigate, they may find an entrance to the great cave system which I have slowly crafted beneath the twin peaks. In its depths resides the pride of my years as a deity, the Mish'Na people.
The Mish'Na are the work of many generations of slow, gentle intervention. Fearsome people, ropes of flesh flow from their shoulders down to the backs of their knees, a natural cape of sorts. Their scaly skin is slick like a fish's, colored a deep green like an asparagus. Their hair falls in cords, like smooth dreadlocks. I have made them so that they cannot do anything without some true devotion, and thus are they my greatest followers.
Origin: I have been since the first wolves mated. Homeless, I watched as Man grew. In time, I took my island as my home and simply waited.
Temperament: Temperament? You ask me what my temperament is? Hah! Rather foolish of you. To put it simply, I adhere strongly to precedent. I detest all who think that they can feed off of their betters without repercussion, but have a special place in my core for those who are willing to put up with those who do.
Clergy: Wherever one devotes themselves, there do I find a source of power.
Symbols: In pictographs and in my churches, a torch within a ball of glass is used to represent my presence there.
Backstory: When Man first set off into the water with their crude flotation devices, I was the one to help when a wordless plea was cried. I set them upon my island, and made them into what they are today. When they grew to acceptable numbers, I set them off in rafts to colonize the vast expanse of land from whence they came. There they spread my will across the lands, becoming pinnacles of leadership, artistry, and essential practices. Many gained a devoted following of their own, further empowering me until I could give any man the ability to devote himself wholly.
   So sure was I in this power that I did not see the King prepare to rise against me. With the constant influx of worship, I never noticed his change in direction. When he revolted and battered me, I was... surprised. Despite my omnipotence, my omniscience, I had been beaten. So shocked was I at losing my power, I returned to my home, safe from the King... for now. Thus am I here, relating this tale to you.
Family Tree: Though children would be a great focus for my own abilities of devotion, my incorporeal form has unfortunately prevented my ability to procreate.

((Yes, this is in character. ))

[Meany]

VAE; Accepted.

Kafzeil; Waiting for you to get a new char together.

[AmberCross]

So it seems Meany has been hinting we need a sun god, a sea god, and some sort of plant/forest/whatever god. I have set wheels in motion for a new sun god, but we'll still need an ocean. Any volunteers to be berefit with grief over the loss of the sea (perhaps a family member or something) and cry out a new god? Or perhaps we should just say the old sea god was well loved and thus all the gods cried over her loss (you know, in a sufficiently godly manner or something... I suddenly remember that crying makes gods mortal or something) and of the tears were formed the new god. Self absorbant, she loves the attention everyone pays attention to her as the newest of the gods, but is prone to temper tantrums when she feels she isn't getting her way. She has a crush on the moon and so will always reach for him (or her, with gods it doesn't quite matter) when it passes overhead, but is jealous of the sun, another new god who rivals her for attention. So she has a tendency to leave/disappear when he is near (evaporation). This is my submission for our new sea god... anyone else god any ideas?

Also still haven't figured out if the sun should be a person, or some sort of artifact. Maybe we find the body of the old sun and set it afire, and set it into motion around the earth or something. *shrug* I'm open to suggestions.

[Kafzeil]

I'm making a sea god. So I'll take care of that.

[Cogidubnus]

I find this rather interesting. I'mma give it a think.

[Dr. Hatari]

I have taken quite a shining to the thread, and am in development of a very flora/fauna centric life god. That may sufficiently address the pantheon's need for greens. More after daily errands!

[Kafzeil]

Name:  Kumbha

Depiction:  A tall, athetlic young man with jet black hair and deep blue eyes. Usually depicted as handsome, and always depicted dressed in blue finery, hands covered with rings and bands of gold, necklaces, and  other jewelry.

Domain: Formally the Messenger of the Sea and it's caretaker when his father was incapable of his duty, Kumbha has since acquired his father's domain of the sea, the waves, the oceans and all under them.

Titles:  Keeper of the Waves, Lord of the Deep.

Island:  Kumbha has claimed an island that, while comparatively small, is surrounded by swallow waters and it sparking his interest, a shallow bay . It's mostly tropical in climate.

Origin:  It has been said that in the beginning, as the rain first began to fall the God of the Seas was born from that rainfall. And from his willpower alone her decree it would keep raining, swallowing much of the dry land into a vast body of water.  And thus, the oceans were born. Stretching as far as the eye can see the God smiled at his newly born Kingdom, as beautiful and ever reaching as it was both kind and dangerous, for a man could feed his entire village from it, sustaining himself and his family...or it could drag him down beneath the waves, his livelihood also his tomb.

To help him rule over his domain, he created a son born of his kingdom. His son would answer only to him, and live in his Kingdom under the waves at all times while the sea god would venture to seek counsel with his brethren. And so his son, Kumbha, would watch from the depths as the foolish mortals took from his home, asking his father for safe passage and a full net. He watched his fellow gods rule the world and bask in the foolish mortals' praise.

Temperament:  Ambitious, arrogant, and temperamental. It's not uncommon for Kumbha to be seen enjoying fine dining and entertainment one second theta swearing vengeance and taking up arms against someone for the smallest infection. He views mortals as nothing more then tools for power, and completely disposable ones at that, often drowning them for the slightest error in worshipping him.

Clergy: Being a new god Kumbha doesn't really *have* his own clergy, having prior only been a hardly worshiped deity. However, he'll likely simply take over his father's old temples, and usually order his priests and followers to pay him tribute least they wish to end up swallowed by the briny depths. Kumbha prefers animal sacrifices and offerings of wealth. Please him, and mortals will find there reward in a safe passage or a bounty of fish. However, given his capricious nature even the grandest offering can mean little to him.

Symbols: The conch shell, and to a lesser extent the harpoon.

Backstory:  The others did not see it coming.His father a fool for having overlooked it. Kumbha had remained behind, as always, to tend to the Kingdom, as he did so before. But...something was different all of the sudden. The Land was swallowed in darkness, the volcanos erupting at random. The entire world itself was thrust into chaos. Then, his father returned, bleeding heavily, barely alive.

He explained the Godking's betrayal. How many his his brothers had fallen. Many more wounded and weakened. He urged his son to protect him and accompany him to find the other survivors. Kumbha took his father's gilded harpoon, the very symbol of his power and reign.

Kumbha knew his father's wounds where too grave. His father was a fool for not sensing such betrayal, or even stopping it as it happened. He was weak, and losing control over this domain.The Godking would claim Kumbha's birthright, the very oceans we had spent his life caring for.  or worse, his father would die the oceans would die with him.

Kumbha look his father in the eye, then thrust the harpoon into the sea god's chest.

And thus the new God of the Sea took his Throne.

Family Tree: Father: former god of the Sea (Deceased)

[AmberCross]

Hoo boy, a fiest one that is. I was originally thinking of having my god of weather be allies with the god of the ocean cause ships need weather AND sea to sail right, but I don't see that happening anymore XD.

Indeed, Aellor would probably not actually like Kumbha that much cause he got his power through usurpery (even if it was for good reason) and not via his own merits by way of creating a new domain. Anyway, nice to have a sea god... hope you have fun!

[VAE]

Heh heh... nice
Also, given the relationship between sea and landmass, nevermind the fine personality, guess who'll probably be Kumbha's sworn enemy
Sort of an inheritance tax.