Ages of Lingusia: The Death Gods!

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Just in time for Halloween....

Principle Gods of Death:

Akuuris

Profile: dreams, fortune telling, visions, third sight, insects

Alignment: neutrality

   Akuuris the dreaming god is the lord of Ethenur, and master of oineriomancy (divination through dreams). He manifests as an immense humanoid insect, and indeed is followed by insectoid species as well as those who have learned to commune with the god and visit the dream plane through meditate practices and psychotropic extracts.

Akuuris' cults spread secretly throughout the world of Lingusia like a thin but tenacious spider web. His most active and visible cultists are in Karaktu, but Akuuris is a god in every land, worshipped in those sultry, smoke-filled dens of mystery. The priests of Akuuris contend that all men pay homage to Akuuris when they fall in to dream-filled slumber.

   Akuuris is the slumbering lord of night, a god who wandered for more millennia than man has existed, and at last settled down in the Dreamlands of Ethenur, a hazy demiplane of mystery, which exists nowhere and everywhere at once. His first great dreams were said to spawn the races of the insects, and the Inkidii, who see him as their creator god. He was the first god to dream, it is said, and when he discovered the dreamlands, he sought to share is discovery with all beings, and so it is that most sentients can walk through dream in slumber.

   It is said that you can travel physically to the dreaming plane through the Ethereal realms, but the cultists of Akuuris learned long ago how to move their in dreams by harvesting and smoking the leaf of the blue lotus. A plant that is rare, found only in the East of Zued, Al’Jhira, and Karaktu, the blue lotus serves as the medium by which the soul of the dreamer can transcend reality and arrive in a simulated physical form in Ethenur.

Elisin

Profile: ancients, old age, the veneration of elders, wisdom

Alignment: lawful

   Elisin is the goddess of ancient wisdom, old age, and long life. Elisin is usually depicted in sacred murals as an ancient woman of half-elvish and human descent, wise beyond imagining and surrounded by adoring children.

   Elisin is seen in some tales as a harsh old woman who observes or imparts tough life lessons on the young in a “Grimm’s Tales” sort of fashion. Among elvish poets and bards, she is spoken of as an infinitely kind and wise woman who dwells in the depths of the Weirding, and is the keeper of the Spring of Knowledge, from which the essence of learning is drawn. Most suspect that both views are right.

   There is no cult of Elisin, though it is said that there was a strong priesthood before the War of the Gods, but they were all killed in her defense when the demons overran Corti’Zahn and slew her mortal form. Her tomb is unknown, and no temple stands in her honor save the ruins of the one in Corti’Zahn.

   Once in a while, a woman of many years who has lost all she care for or loves, but who perseveres in the face of great opposition, is given a vision by Elisin, and receives a calling to take up the faith and worship of this goddess. These few women, wandering the land and aiding the needy and teaching the ignorant, are the select priestesses of Elisin.

Appearance: An elderly, harsh old woman of wizened age and appearance, sometimes kindly.

Hargameth

Profile: warfare, blood and thunder, glory, combat, killing

Alignment: neutrality

Hargameth is a northern god who spread long ago, his aspects being common to all men. Hargameth is the proverbial lord of blood and thunder, the great warrior of the battlefields, the last of the gods to go down fighting in the War of  the Gods, sealing the rift of the Abyss with his own blood before he collapsed.

   Hargameth is a cult which warriors throughout the world, especially barbarians and more visceral fighters who rely on rages, berserkergang, and bloody frenzies to work themselves in to an appropriate mind-set for combat. He is the antithesis of Vishannu, a god who harkens from the east, and represents the strategic element of war, the art of combat, and the finesse or elegant dueling and intrigue.

Appearance: Hargameth is usually depicted as a furious barbarian warrior in full plate, wielding his immense bastard sword and tower shield, stitched from the skins of the thousand devonin generals he has slain. In the afterlife, it is said that the Celestial Kingdom of Hargameth is the final resting ground of truly powerful warriors who fall valiantly in battle. There, they are ascended to the ranks of the Einheriar, spirits of battle who fight the good fight against the Abyssal devonin and all other enemies of the mortal plane.

Karn

Profile: ancestors, reverence for the dead, ancient secrets

Alignment: neutrality

 The record keeper of the dead, Karn is one of the gods of the Afterlife. His following is scattered and his presence as a god is little known outside of those priests who follow one deity of death or another. His worship occurs only in those lands where a need to provide records of the dead have become necessary. As such, his worship can be found in Hyrkania, where great mausoleums of cremated remains can be found, as well as in Galonia, where his worship continued even after all other gods of the Old Galonian pantheon passed on. In the city state of Karan, the ancient tradition of the magiocracy requires that the priests of Karn preside over and record all royal burials. Last but not least, the only death god given recognition beside the Nameless One in Autrengard is Karn, who is said to bar the northern warriors from the afterworld if they cannot recite the names of their forefathers to him, in honor of all their great deeds.

   Karn is sometimes confused with Esyphas in the Middle Kingdoms, but Esyphas is a demigod that holds the Book of the Dead for Kavishkar, and recites the crimes of those to be judged. Karn, however, performs a different duty for the souls of those who worship him, and is more of a secret master to be approached on matters of the afterlife. He is also considered the true scholar of knowledge and lore in the afterlife.

Appearance: Karn is a striking figure, an oligarchic man with kingly and wizardly aspects. However, his face is a sunken image of deathliness, and his eyes hollow voids.

Karsyllym

Profile: justice, mercy, final fate, reincarnation, destruction, executioners

Alignment: lawful

Mistress of the Land of the Dead, Karsyllym is wife to Kavishkar and keeper of the Book of Names. Karsyllym’s duties come after her husband judges the innocence or guilt of a soul, and it is her duty to record the sentence and decree the fate of the being in question. Some are sent to purgatories for whatever period is necessary to purge the soul of its crimes. Others are sent to the celestial kingdoms as servants, and an occasional soul is granted an opportunity for reincarnation. The fates of the dead are many, and Karsyllym knows all of them.

   Karsyllym has a small but dedicated order of men and women, priests who act as the executioners for dire crimes in Hyrkania. Her priesthood is feared by all, for their duty is to insure that those sentenced for their crimes are brought to justice. Often, this simply means carrying out an execution or insuring the offender is taken to the proper prison, but they are expected to puruse those who seek to evade justice, as well, and are coldly efficient bounty hunters.

Appearance: Karsyllym appears as a tall and gaunt woman, sometimes wearing ebon armor, other times a dress of blackest silk. She is flanked by a squadron of ancient guardians, spirit defenders of the eternal darkness called the Invantyr.

Kavishkar

Profile: Justice and the hand of judgment

Alignment: lawful

Serving as the lord of judgement in the Lands of the Dead, Kavishkar’s duty is to determine the guilt or innocence of any soul who must come before him in the afterlife. He holds court in the most ancient, eternal necropolis of the Stygian Darkness, with his queen Karsyllym at his side.

   Any soul who appears before Kavishkar for judgement will be scrutinized carefully. Esyphas, the Record Keeper, is a dreadful servant of Kavishkar who holds the Book of the Dead with him, in which the tales of all misdeeds of those who come to the court are held. While Esyphas read these deeds, Kavishkar scrutinizes the hapless soul, and at its end, he may interrogate the being for further illumination, after which he utters his sentence of innocence or guilt. His wife then takes over, recording the fate of the soul to whatever purgatory awaits. It is then that the Nameless One takes the soul to its appointed rendezvous with eternity.

   In Hyrkania, the Order of Kasdalan is a dedicated priesthood of civic servants and warriors who hunt down the accused and preside over lawful trials to decide the fate of living men. They revere Kaviskhar for his wisdom on such matters and are especially fond of divinatory magic.

Appearance: Kaviskhar is a tall, sallow-eyed king of darkness, with an immense beard and gaunt, pale features. At times, he seems to take on the aspect of a true skeleton or mummy, at others to be merely an ancient, wisened old man. He wears ebon armor made from the laquered bones of those who have defied his judgement.

The Nameless One

Profile: death, passing on, destroyer of undead, harbinger

Alignment: neutrality

The word for death in the Old Tongue is “Koth,” and the word for That Which Must Not Be Named is “Esiros.” When joined together in the proper manner, these words form the Old Tongue title of Death, He Who must Not Be Named: Koth’os. T’Kothos, in fact, means Lord of the Nameless One, Death.

   Death is a being which pervades all cultures and religions in Lingusia, and his Middle Kingdoms incarnation is by far the most forbidding. Throughout the Middle Kingdoms, his priests are the shunned and mysterious Walkers of Final Night. These Walkers are part time morticians, grave diggers, and hunters of the undead. Indeed, the undead are an anathema to The Nameless One, as they are the dead which will not lie in peace. He is guardian of the gates and boundaries of the afterlife, and caretaker of the netherealms where the souls pass through in their transition. He opposes the devonin of chaos who would foul that barrier to steal souls, as well as any mortal who seeks to reclaim one of the dead by reanimating it as an undead being. It is the solemn Duty of Death and his priesthood to find these undead and put them to rest.

Appearance: Death is a massive, giant-like skeletal being wearing ebony armor and wielding the sacred great sword Rishelka, the Ruby Death.

Nephythis

Profile: keeper of tombs and wealth

Alignment: neutrality

   Nephythis was a goddess of the ancient Old Galonian pantheon, a protector of tombs in the mortal world, who saw to the protection of the dead from tomb robbers and necromancers. She is now barely remembered, venerated only by a handful of Galonian families of wealth who keep her spirit alive. Naphythis has seen a minor resurgence in Jhakn, where it has become fashionable to build a shrine to her at the entrance to a family crypt.

   Nephythis was also associated with wealth and prestige, and her image was popular as a patron goddess among the merchants of Old Galonia, and even today she is still given prayers and offerings at special shrines by Galvonarian merchants.

   Nephythis has very few true priests or followers in the present, perhaps only a handful who have felt the calling of the goddess.

    Nephythis was depicted as a comely young Galonian woman in regal azure robes with gold jewelry. Once, she dwelt in a grand palace of pure gold in the celestial kingdom, but now it is said she walks the dreamlands aimlessly, looking for her lost brethren from the pantheon of Old Galonia, and trying to restore her own power.

Trimelin

Profile: deep waters, aquatic undersea dwellers, drowning

Alignment: neutrality

   The mystery of Trimelin is difficult to unravel. God of the watery deeps longbefore Enki came in to fashion, Trimelin is a god recognized by the intelligent aquatic races as a patron and perhaps even creator. The god has temples in some remote locations on the surface, and seems to have been a priesthood for thousands of years, but little or no written material about this god has ever been recorded. Some scholars worry that Trimelin bears a certain similarity to the mysterious ancient gods, the Kraken, but the similarities are tenuous at best.

   Trimelin is depicted as an immense squid-like being dwelling in an ancient city beneath the sea. Some aquatic beings claim to have actually visited this location, and say the god is a very real being, and that he exists only in the material realm. It is possible that he never even participated in the War of the Gods, and thus was never slain in the corporeal world.

All text copyright 2011 by Nicholas Torbin Bergquist, all rights reserved

Ages of Lingusia: Gods of the Middle Kingdoms II

Neutral Gods:

Set

Profile: evil, lies, ascension of power, corruption of innocent

Alignment: chaos

Set is the eternal prevaricator of evil and corruption, the god who has taken it upon himself to embrace the tenets of ultimate order at any price. He is not a lord of chaos, evne though he is sometimes mistaken for such. His obsessive dedication to deceit is as much an ordered process as truth, and Set’s very existence as a deity depends upon an ordered universe in which his godly powers can work against. The tenets of chaos are in opposition to any truth about which the Keeper of Lies might spin false tales.

   The followers of Set are many, and the largest enclave is in the rigid empire of the Setite serpent men, Hazer’Phennis. Here, the rule of evil is ultimate, and power goes to the most treacherous and conniving. Throughout the world, the setites and other servants of Set seek to further his cause, which might, one day, be to unite the world under his banner of evil and worship.

   Set’s infernal kingdom of evil is known as the Nine Hells, sometimes also called Stygia. Here, Set’s fallen seraphim, the devils of lore, serve him and his dire ends.

   Set is known to take the form of a variety of desert-dwelling beasts, especially that of the snake and the jackal. His mark rests upon the races of his own creation, such as the Jackalmen of the deep deserts in Galvonar, and the Setites of the Hyrkanian Deserts.

Shandrigal

(also called Drolzaros)

Profile: lord of storms and destruction

Alignment: neutrality

   Shandrigal is the enigmatic lord of storms, a weather god with what some would describe as primitive, bestial aspects. He is sometimes worshipped by dragons and their kin, though such worship is seen as heretical among dragonkind.

   In the eastern kingdoms Shandrigal is believed to be a brother of Ravanos and is described as “The Demon of the Winds.” In the north he is called Drolzaros, and is a Wendigo-like banshee in tales.

   Shandrigal is a destructive deity, but is still a nature god, and so does not usually attract the worship of chaos entities.

Vishannu

Profile: art of war and conflict, martial arts, the amazons

Alignment: chaos

   Vishannu began as the god of tactics and warfare in distant Al’jhira of Takkai many thousands of years ago, but migrated to Lingusia, where his temples appeared in early war-torn Zued and eventually were adopted by a truly fanatical cult of women who founded the kingdom of Vyrindia deep within the heart of Amech.

   In this era Vishannu is still expanding, his cult slowly becoming more popular in the Eastern Kingdoms and with the warriors of Amech. Whether he will prove to be the ultimate betrayer god in the distant future as he did in the prior timeline remains to be seen.

   Vishannu wears blood-red armor forged from the heart of the sun. He is tall (9 feet) but moves with alarmingly protean speed. He is startlingly rugged and handsome and very well spoken. He has the army of the Enheriar at his command, as well as a handful of devonin who have defected to his cause. He is courting Wishupar, Ravanos, and certain other gods to serve as his agents and allies in his mysterious schemes.

Plot Hook: In 1,958 Vishannu is assassinated, being the first slain god in almost two thousand years. This coup was distinctive, however, for the perpetrators were two shadowy beings calling themselves Unarak and Phaedra. They used an unknown prehunate device to capture and vampirically siphon away Vishannu’s life force, but the process was interrupted by his greates amazon champion, the avatar Avolakita, who wounds Unarak and drives the two back in to the Shadow Plane. Too late to save her god, Vishannu imparts the last of his divine essence within her, making her a true demigod, and charges her with the task of bringing his killers to justice…

Wishupar

Profile: tricksters,  thieves, deception

Alignment: neutrality

   Wishupar’s temples are still secret, and known only to the acolytes of the cult. It is not a popular cult, but has gained a quiet edge in amongst Hyrkanians, as it has become endorsed as a cult for the purposes of the Hyrkanian Throne. It’s most prominent servants and warriors have dedicated themselves to the service of the Mandragora House, and the restoration of the Empire.

    Wishupar was once seen as a dreadful northern god of thieves and cut throats, but in fact Wishupar was never so hideous....the cult has always wanted to be seen as such, and propogates the rumors to insure it is feared. In fact, the cultists fof Wishupar are civic servants, worshipping a deity who espouses secrecy and deception to support the ruling class. They are mercenaries, and Wishupar is a patron of mercenaries. Worshippers may be thieves and rogues, yes, but more in fashion with a kind of secret service, one which must work conspiratorially  to serve the throne.

   It is suggested by many that  the servants of Wishupar have hidden, secret agendas, and that their dedication to a ruler is not so much for the interests of that ruler as their own. Some claim that this conspiracy goes back many millennia, and that the real purpose of the cult is to gain domination over all lands and people through time, and to damage the worship of other cults, especially the kin of Wishupar’s as described in the Idean Codices (such as Hermes and Haro). Given that the Agents of Wishupar are prone to going out of their way to kill priests and servants of those gods, there seems to be some truth to this.

   On those rare occasions Wishupar appears or is depicted, he manifests as a raven, sometimes as a wereraven. He does take human forms, as as a former demiurge ascended to godhood after the Reckoning, Wishupar has a living form as well as a divine aspect.

Wolfon

Profile: Keeper of the Beast Spirit, lord of the wilds

Alignment: neutrality

   Wolfon is the beast lord, the creator of true beasts and the master of the feral. He is the embodiment of all that is wild. In the dawn of time, the myths of the Idean Codices tell of how Wolfon grew infatuated with the moon goddess, Selene, and would pursue her throughout the night, howling as he did, and as his beasts now do in the present. As always, Selene’s son Zingar and husband Naril would drive him away.

   Beastmen of many sorts, especially the Vyrkasha, and therianthropes of all types favor the worship of Wolfon. Such worship is druidic in nature.

Zingar

Profile: hunters, rangers, justice, survival, instinct

Alignment: neutrality

   Zingar is also a god of the Middle Kingdoms, said to be a brother to Death and Slithotep. His mortal crypt can be found in the Slithotendan Mountains. Throughout Niras and the northern lands he is the god of the hunt and the spirit of the beast. His divine aspect said to materialize on key days of sacred hunting, and suring the solstices. Zingar’s cult is a quiet menagerie of professional hunters, rangers (especially the rangers of Kom’Huandyr) and dedicated priests. The priests of Zingar are chosen only from among those who actually witness the divine aspect of Zingar, the Wild Hunt.

   Zingar manifests as an immense being, horned and centauroid, flanked by a horde of baying wolves. He has appeared as a quiet elvish ranger on occasion, but under the moon light he is always the wild hunt form.

All text copyright 2011 by Nicholas Torbin Bergquist, all rights reserved

Ages of Lingusia: The Gods and Myths in the Empire Era

What follows is a multi-part overview of several pantheons in Lingusia, more or less as they were in the Empire Era of 1,958 aw. Each of the following chapters over the next few days will focus on a different pantheon or aspect there-with. Some material that has been omitted from the Keepers of Lingusia entries either reflects material that is not yet a part of this earlier timeline, or has been cut by omission of brevity and/or because I am considering revisions in the "new" timeline.



Part One: The Primal Gods and the Creation Story

   Long before the world existed there was the primal chaos, a swirling maelstrom of destruction and creation that existed in a never-ending cycle of instant and all consuming disorder. Entire universes, realities, and entities have spawned countless times from the maelstrom, only to be consumed mere instants later.

   The first Idean Codex contains a creation story of the world, words written by a scholar who was almost certainly not human, long before man had himself crafted the rudimentary languages he would one day communicate with. This first and most ancient tale speaks of a time when there was only the eternal chaos, and out of this chaos spawned the entity called Mala’kor. Mala’kor was the first cosmic intelligence to survive in the chaos, and indeed learned to thrive. Over countless eons this enigmatic entity learned to master its chaotic environment, and even learned to delight in the constant process of creation and destruction.

   After a time Mala’kor grew experimental and attempted to create other beings like himself. These early creations were half-formed mad entities which spun off into the nether-realms, some disincorporating, some struggling to survive in the far corners of the maelstrom. It is hinted that many entities, ancient proto-gods all, came in to existence in this time, and that some of those gods may have seen fit to create entities of their own. Thus were many pantheons and pockets of orderly existence created, but all unobserved by Mala’kor.

   Mala’kor eventually grew tired of these endless games and desired company which he could relate to, beings of such great power as his own, that were permanent, and not destined to be destroyed by the maelstrom once more. Confident he could still manage his creations, he drew forth from the maelstrom to create Ga’thika, the first true god of order. Within Ga’thika he saw the goddess who would be his companion, and she, new to existence, lived with him for a great time. Together they existed as husband and wife, until Mala’kor grew restless for more companionship, and once more he reached in to the maelstrom. This time he drew forth T’Kothos, the god of death, which emobided the closing cycle of life. T’kothos would be his brother, he decided.

   Ga’thika and T’kothos were different from Mala’kor, for they were no longer truly of the maelstrom as he was, and they saw the great carnival of random creation and destruction that had been cycling for untold eons, as whole universes sprang in to being and collapsed. They decided, then that they would flee together, and escape the maelstrom. Once free of Mala’kor, they could start their own creation, one which was not subject to the dominion of all chaos.

   When the two gods winked out of existence and reappared in a new realm created wholly from the cloth of reality, their sudden absence at first perplexed and then engraged Mala’kor, who sought them out, desperate to see that his first true permanent creations did not escape him. He created a race of beings, hideous demiurges of chaos called the Skaeddrath to seek them out. The Skaeddrath could penetrate the barriers of reality, boring through the twisting nether through which the maelstrom swirled, to see corners of existence as yet undreamed by any god or being. It is said that the burrowing of the Skaeddrath was what created the porous realms that would one day form to become the extraplanar realms of existence.

   Ga’thika and T’kothos meanwhile began their own permanent creation, weaving the mortal plane in to existence, seeding the cosmos with countless stars and worlds, experimenting with their early talents for creation to create untold wonders and terrors alike at the dawn of existence. Their power was seemingly infinite, and free of the maelstrom they were the true masters of their domain.

   Over time the two grew safe and complacent. They created their first offspring, which would one day be called the Elder Gods. These gods were young and carefree, free to roam the vast creation of their parents.

   When the Skaeddrath called the Kraken bore its way in to the creation of the two primal gods, it escaped detection, but knew immediately that it had found the domain Mala’kor sought. It returned, and reported to Mala’kor of the young gods’ new universe. Enraged at their impudence Mala’kor summoned the other eleven even more powerful Skaeddrath to accompany the Kraken back to this universe, to dismantle and destroy it.

   When the Kraken and the Skaeddrath appeared, they began to dismantle reality, boring holes through the very fabric of existence, devouring whole worlds and suns, and snuffing out the life of countless beings that had been spawned as a product of Ga’Thika’s creations. Little is known of this cosmic war, but it’s resolution was certain: the Skaeddrath, ultimately, were overwhelmed by the Primal Gods and their Elder God offspring, and forced at last into a prison. This prison was a latticework of ancient energy, power strong enough to contain the twelve beings of chaos. Ga’thika and T’Kothos, realizing that only they could sustain the prison with their very beings, created the two great layers of reality which enveloped the prison. The realm above became the mortal plane of existence that men would one day call Lingusia. The realm below became the Underworld, the physical manifestation of the realm of the dead, where all souls descended after their lives had ended. Between these two realms rested the twelve prisons of the slumbering, trapped Skaeddrath. Ga’Thika and T’Kothos ordered their young offspring to stand as the keepers of the new worlds so formed, as gatekeepers to the twelve prisons.

   The elder gods were but the first of many generations of gods to appear in the coming eons. The stress of eternity, the power of the divine and the needs to oversee existence were troubling tasks, and eventually these first gods succumbed to the temptation to move on, entering the vastness of the outer planes, renouncing their existence to achieve mortality, or otherwise abrogating their positions of power. Each time this happened the gods in question were required to pass the torch to the next generation, and so they did. Today, only a handful of these eldest gods, called now the Mysteries, are still in existence, and they include Ashuar, Aurumurvox, Damortas and Eldarath.

   A succession of gods and tales followed: the Primordials, the Titans, and eventually the Young Gods, who today are seen as old gods themselves by a handful of young demiurges. In the midst of all this, there arose three distinct pantheons, and one neutral faction that chose not to partake in the conflicts of the gods. These included the so-called gods of order, who were descended from Ga’thika, and the gods of Death who were the descendants of T’kothos. A third pantheon manifested eons ago, caused by the unrelenting but subtle corruption of chaos. These gods embodied a pantheon of chaos, and they sought to steal the secrets of the maelstrom from Ga’thika, if they could but penetrate his dark realm and find his secrets. It is said that the first gods of this pantheons were Dalroth and Slithotep, sons of Naril, and that they were driven mad with revelation by their communion with Mala’kor,and when they returned they founded the pantheon of chaos, with the intent of unlocking the secrets of chaos that they could unmake all of reality, then remake it in their own image.

   Today, the younger gods are simply the gods that all men and other beings know, for they have existed for more than eighty thousand years according to the first Idean Codex. The memory of the Skaeddrath is all but lost save to those few heretics who read the Calydarin Codex and wonder at the terrors it reveals. Some claim that they are shown terrifying visions by the slumbering Skaeddrath, and worry that the gods today have forgotten their true purpose as jailkeepers for these ancient beings of destruction, caught up as they are in their conflicts between the patheons of chaos, death and order. Finally, there is a rumor that a new pantheon has appeared, a shadowy cabal of gods who have their own agenda, to steal power from the rest. This so-called shadow pantheon is an as-yet unrealized threat, and its conspirators remain unrevealed.

All text copyright 2011 by Nicholas Torbin Bergquist, all rights reserved