#Turkic Gods

[all-turkic]

Mergen Khan: The God of Reason in Turkic Mythology

Mergen Khan and His Divine LineageThe Representation of Mergen Khan and Associated FiguresSymbolism and Mythical ConnectionsMergen Khan’s Greek Mythology CounterpartsConclusionVideo: Türk Mitolojisi-Akıl Tanrısı Mergen HanYou may also like Mergen Khan, also known as Pergen Khan, holds a significant place in Turkic and Altai mythology as the God of Reason. Representing intelligence and wisdom, he…

[yellowmanula]

Tengri, central to ancient Turkic and Mongolic beliefs, was revered as the sky deity embodying the vastness of the heavens. Unlike many gods in organized religions, Tengri was not depicted through idols or worshipped in temples. Instead, Tengriism was deeply rooted in nature, with the open sky serving as his dwelling. Followers of Tengri believed in his omnipresence and omniscience, invoking him as a witness during oaths or as a guide before major events like battles. Leaders and warriors would pray to Tengri on mountain summits or in seclusion, calling upon his strength and protection.

Tengri’s favor or displeasure was thought to be reflected through natural phenomena. Sudden weather changes, storms, or other natural signs were interpreted as his responses to human actions, underscoring the belief that Tengri maintained a watchful gaze over the world. This connection to the natural world and the cosmos formed the core of Tengriism, shaping the spiritual lives and cultural values of early Central Asian societies.

[necromancy-savant]

I went on the podcast, talked like a Tumblrina the whole time, and now they think I'm funny and interesting and my ass is getting a second episode. Tune in next time to listen to Seeking and Straying and discuss my terminal blorbo disease

Fr though these guys are awesome and made me feel like a rock star. AND they taught me all about DC culture and DC-specific AAVE

[who1kio]

I feel weird being a descendant who finds the gods my ancestors once worshiped attractive. Please don't judge me.

[harrycollins]

Americans & Europeans stop counting Turkey and Iran as Arab countries challenge (failed)

[theskyexists]

Well anyway i found a steppe Amazon story thats good. It is Good

[who1kio]

WTF ERLIK LOOKS SO FINE IN THIS??

[OC] Erlik Erlik is the god of death and the underworld, sometimes referred to as tamag (hell) in turkic mythology. he is one of the children of kayra and yer tengri and one of koyash's siblings

[rochenn]

Perfect linguistic/culinary co-evolution of Germanic and Turkic peoples in which one party has an ancient god named Donar, after whom they name their Thursday, and the other party creates Döner, the most delicious thing on the planet, which I can now buy for cheap every week. Because it's Dönerstag. Peace and love

[bldrdsh]

@turkicgods / starter call ( karter kane )

PIPE RESTS between his lips, eyes focusing on the god as he enters his domain. HE CAN only assume that he's received a visitor on behalf of the DARK FATHER and after a moment he finally speaks.

"You trek into LANDS unknown with little fear I see..."

HE TRAILS off. He's going to take a few prods to get a sense of what his purpose is here. ABOVE ALL ELSE, this was his home, he will HOLD HIMSELF strong and as eyes fall upon the other turkic god fully, the MOON'S SHIFT coming and allowing him showcase this PLACE belongs to him & him alone.

"...now what would possess a god to trek into LANDS foreign to him...so what PRAY-TELL is the crusade that drives you into my home?"

[all-turkic]

Erlik Khan: The Evil God Spirit in Turkic Mythology

Origins and LineageThe Son of Gok God Altai and Mongolian Names Relationships and Kinship Erlik Khan: The Embodiment of EvilThe Punishment The Throne and the Underworld The Forbidden Branches Erlik Khan: Appearance and AttributesThe Physical Form Weapons and Mounts Artistic Depictions Erlik Khan: Symbolism and ImpactThe Source of Evil Weakness of Will Expulsion and Punishments Associated Entities…

[morsrattus]

The Big Pent Collection Post: Secret History of the Horse Sun

It has been pointed out to me that I haven't actually ever written a post explaining what the hell Secret History of the Horse Sun is. So, uh, doing that now!

The Fuck's A Glorantha

Glorantha is a TTRPG setting attached to one of several rulesets for the games Runequest, HeroQuest, QuestWorlds or other names which I've probably forgotten. It is a vaguely Bronze Age-ish world focused around religious fantasy and spiritual power rather than traditional medieval stuff, as it was designed by anthropologist and practicing shaman Greg Stafford. I think it's pretty cool! But it is largely focused on an area named Dragon Pass, where a bunch of guys called the Orlanthi live. They're a mix of Vedic, Celtic and Norse ideas thrown into a stewpot, and they're cool and all...but there's other regions, and not all of them are particularly well written.

Like Pent

Pent is a very large steppes plain - somewhat larger than the entire nation of France, maybe five or six times bigger than Dragon Pass - which goes criminally underused by Glorantha. It exists solely as a place for horse nomads to rampage out of and threaten the people the game actually cares about, and as an origin point for historic figure Sheng Seleris, mighty warlord who conquered the Celestial Empire of Kralorela (read: Not China, generally poorly written) and almost destroyed the Lunar Empire (the primary villain nation of mainline Glorantha these days) before the Lunars defeated him and imprisoned him alive in the depths of Tax Hell.

Pent is a grassland steppe vaguely based on Mongolia and Sheng Seleris is vaguely based on Temujin, the Chinggis Khan. This is an area of IRL history and culture that deeply fascinates me and which I love reading and talking about. So I looked at Pent and its generally boring or outright bad writing and decided it needed to be done better.

As such, I started Secret History of the Horse Sun, a total rewrite of Pent as a location and culture. It is heavily based on Mongolian, Tibetan and Central Asian Turkic cultures, backed by my academic research on these areas but very much fictionalized and changed to fit the world of Glorantha and its preexisting mythos. This work is not an accurate representation of real world Mongolia, Tibet, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, ancient Scythia or anywhere else on Earth, though it is my goal to be as respectful of these real world places and peoples as I can be in my portrayal of a fictional culture similar to them.

This post is intended to collect my work on the project into a way that is easy to understand, read, and link to. Below, posts will be divided up into categories based on what they're about. If anything confuses you, please feel free to comment or send an ask or whatever - I love talking about my work and am happy to explain stuff.

The actual work is set shortly before the rise of Sheng Seleris, as I think this is the most interesting time for Pent; it has retconned a number of details to make things more interesting for me, though, like the Winds being gods despite it being pre-Sheng. I will eventually be writing a guide to adventuring before and during Sheng's rise.

Eventually.

The Pentan Gods

The first part of the project was a writeup of the Pentan pantheon, a group collectively known to the Pentans as the First Herd. These are writeups in the HeroQuest 2e/QuestWorlds system, and are mechanically usable in that system, but because the mechanics are highly narrative and descriptive, each writeup is also a description of the god and their cult within Pentan society; in Glorantha, religious cults form much of the bedrock of all societies.

Yu-Kargzant, the Sun Khan, God Above Gods

Basko, the God of the Bad Death, Lord of the Dark Shamans

Dostal, the God of Bow Hunting

DuTukhos and Arcos, the Gods of the Arcos River

East Sting Wind, the God of Bandits and Crime

Erissa, the Goddess of Healing

Eyritha, the Herd Mother, Goddess of Herd Animals That Aren't Horses or Sheep

Galana, the Chooser of Khans, Goddess of Horses

Golden Bow, the God of the Good Death, Lord of the Bright Shamans

Gor Gorma, the Goddess of Terror, the Malign Earth, and Vengeance

Hurfor, the God of Secrets and Law

Hyalor and Gamari, Man and Horse, the Good Ancestors

Issaries, the God of Trade and Mules

Kargzant, the Light Khan

Lozarl, the God of Impure Fires, Mining, Labor and Asses

Manurl, the God of Cats and Trapping

North War Wind, the God of Death

Oria, the Goddess of Earth

Pole Star, the God of Strategy and Warfare

Samnal, the Bad Ancestor, God of What Not To Do

South Rage Wind, the Storm Bull and Chaos Killer

Sirdaryo, Goddess of Wrestling and the River Sirdaryo

Tarhel and Heltar, the Gods of Sheep, Clouds and Weaving

Tepekos, the God of Smiths

Tholm, the God of Falconry

West King Wind, the Storm Khan

Whirlwind Fool, Raven, and other Tricksters

Elyu-Ene, the Emissary of the Winter Gods

Pentan Cultural Overview

This collection of posts was written to try and provide a broader understanding of Pentan culture as it exists without wholly being about the religion. While religion permeates every aspect of Pentan life (and Gloranthan existence in general), there is life outside of the gods, after all.

Horses

Age

The Ancestral Peoples of Pent

Food and Daily Life

Fashion

Law

Love and Hatred

Slavery (CW, uh, Slavery)

Sports

Warfare

Non-Pentan Peoples

The Khuruldan

Life from the Pure Horse Perspective

Life from the Kargzanti Perspective

Life from the Four Winds Perspective

Hsunchen and Qa Ying

After I finished the above, I decided I needed to properly detail the non-Pentan cultures in and immediately around Pent. The first grouping I began to work on were the Hsunchen of the Shan Shan mountain range east of the Pentan plains. The Hsunchen are a type of person in Glorantha - "beast people," human beings who are able to transform into animals due to their worship of ancestral beast gods and spirits. Within the Pentan area they are not considered to be human, either by themselves or their neighbors, and could broadly be compared to werewolves, werebears, etc. They are largely non-agricultural, often viewing intensive agriculture as a violent assault on the living earth, and have societies roughly based on the animals they consider to be their kin. The Qa Ying are winged people also called the Wind Children, and are potentially descended from literal winds or are possibly eagle Hsunchen, or a mix of both in the past who became one thing.

The Qa Ying

King Violent Wind, God of Rulership and Storms

Merciful Rain Consort, God of Clouds and Water

Inner Wind Sage, Spirit King of the Wind Spirits

Blazing Wings Hunter, God of Hunting and Ancestral Raptor God

The Lo Fak Yak Folk

Lo Fa, Ancestral Yak Goddess of the Lo Fak

Undrung, God of Draconic Mysticism and Seeker of Mystic Truths

Yi Da, Spirit Yak and God of Shamans

The Lo Fak also worship their own version of Storm Bull but I didn't do a full writeup because he's very similar.

The Chen Ga Snow Leopard Folk

Chen Gar, Ancestral Snow Leopard God of the Chen Ga

Freezing Wind, God of Winter

Snow Woman, Goddess of Mountain Peaks

The Hsa Tiger Folk

Hsa Black Stripe, Ancestral Tiger God of the Hsa

Yumaryu, the God of Light and the Sun Spear Man

Gods of the Cat Brothers, Shared by the Hsa and Chen Ga

Bieti, the Mountain Witch and Patron of Shamans

Sakkar Swordtooth, God of Fear and Hunger

The Ri Si Woodpecker Folk

Ri-si, Ancestral Woodpecker Goddess of the Ri Si

Cucul, Cuckoo God of Shamans

The Orathorn

The Orathorn are the only real sorcerous group in Pent - a small order of necromancers led by the immortal sage Orathorn, granted an imitation of immortality by his magic. They seek the conquest of Death, hoping to grant immortality to all humanity, that they might be free to pursue their true power and goals rather than be bound to what the Orathorn see as slavery-in-afterlife to gods in exchange for power within a paltry mortal lifespan. Most Pentans consider them horrible monsters for, among other things, their casual use of undead, their casual blasphemy, and their terrifying power...insofar as most Pentans ever deal with them, anyway. They are still sometimes hired as mercenaries by those Pentans who are less concerned by prohibitions on the use of sorcery, and they believe their selflessness will be vindicated...eventually.

Orathorn Overview

Principles of Sorcery and the Sorcery of the Zaburi

[dykesynthezoid]

At some point had written out an entire post w lots of in depth research about Armand potentially being a descendent of Karluk Turks who emigrated to South Asia and were living under the Delhi Sultanate (which is a thing that did happen historically) as reasoning for him speaking a language that sounds like Uzbek but basically I think Armand knows Chagatai and maybe he even picked it up not bc of having Turkic heritage himself but just bc it was such a prominent literary language in the Muslim world at the time. God can you imagine Amadeo hiding those books from Marius, who thinks he needs to be focusing on “”western”” knowledge…. (*Amadeo voice* screw you dad I’m learning about the Golden Horde!). Anyway. Yay Chagatai

[sungodded]

Dual promo for two of my independent roleplay blogs for KOYASH, the God of the Sun and MATYR HAN, the God of Courage && Bravery from Turkic Mythology with influence from personal headcanon. OC, AU, multi-muse && crossover friendly. Mun && muse 21+.

[marvelshifter111]

Hiiii <3<3<3 (love ur blog) can I request water power aliases!!! Ty

Thank you for sending an ask ❤️

Superhero names - hydrokinesis

Rigo - "wet" in Latin

Unda - "wave" in Latin

Rhea - "flowing water"

Onda - "ripple" in French

Meeri - "sea of bitterness"

Zale - "strength of the sea"

Kai - "the sea" Hawaiian name

Ondine - "water spirit" in Latin

Yara - "beauty of the waves" Brazilian name

Talay - Turkic god of the Ocean

Neptune - Greek god of sea

Vales/Volos - Slavic god of sea

Amphitrite - Greek goddess of sea

Rán - Norse goddess of sea

Superpower pack

Visuals

Tried something new with the look cuz why not

[danvolodar]

Pathologic and the Town's Russianness: 1

For part 1, let's explore the naming conventions Pathologic uses, and whether its Town characters have Russian surnames.

The names of the townsfolk are remarkably non-Russian

The Kin, of course, have their names in their own Steppe language, which is a conlang that Ice Pick Lodge conscructed based on Mongolic and Turkic (mostly Buryat) tongues. So, no questions with that.

But what about the Town itself, and the names of the people living in it?

For starters, it must be noted that the foundational workings of surnames in Russian are pretty much the same as in most European languages: a surname denotes someone's ancestor's relation to craft (such as the most common surname both in English - Smith, and in Russian - Kuznetsov, meaning exactly the same), kin, appearance feature, or other such concept.

As an inflected language, however, Russian adds special suffixes to its usual roots to arrive at surnames. The most well-known of them is, of course, -ov. In the example above it turns kuznets (smith, as an occupation) into Kuznetsov (Smith, as a surname). It is also used to form the archetypical Russian surname: Ivanov, that is, related to Ivan. It is, however, by far not the only suffix used, and there are multiple others: -in, -tsyn, -shyn, -ev, -tsev, -y, and more.

Most of these allow to construct feminine forms by simple addition of the ending -a (Saburov - Saburova); but some are more complex (Olgimsky - Olgimskaya). Such complexity usually marks suffixes used in other Slavic tongues: -y in particular is often seen in Belorussian and Polish.

With all that in mind, let's explore the names we find in the Town-on-Gokhon. And the thing immediately striking is just how little surnames formed from Russian roots and Russian suffixes there are.

First, there are obviously non-Russian surnames, such as Ravel, Block, Longin, Feugel, Yan, Croy. Most of them appear to come from other European languages.

Is that probable for a Russian Empire stand-in? Yes. It was a multinational state, and there were enough Europeans among the elite for Vyazemsky to bemoan in mid-XIX century that "the Russian God" is "God whose favour falls on Germans". (Then again, hardly surprising under the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty, ethnically German and only taking German wives for generations, despite ruling Russia).

Then, there are the surnames with Russian suffixes: Saburov, Stamatin, Lyuricheva, Olgymsky, Dankovsky. But the thing is, none of these have Russian roots! Saburov is based on Tatar (patient, hardy); Stamatin on Greek (persistent, stable); Lyuricheva, Olgymsky and Dankovsky are Slavic-sounding, but appear to be unique to the game's characters. As a side note here, Dankovsky is apparently based on a name from Gorky's Old Izergiel (Danko, a brave who ripped his own heart out to light the way for the rest of his peope).

Now, is that probable? It's stretching the suspension of disbelief a bit. Yes, there had been Tatars among the Russian elite since before the day Kazan was conquered by Moscow, which reflected in their surnames. Yes, priesthood surnames could include Greek roots. And yes, the Western Slavs were also in the Empire. But it's hard to imagine all of these coinciding to entirely drown out the surnames based on Russian roots!

All in all, this distribution sounds like a conscious artistic choice, making such an assemblage less likely for historic Eastern Europe rather than Central one.

As a sort of postscript, for these who could be bothered to read this far down. There's an interesting quirk about the female surnames in the game: in Russian, unless a surname ends with one of the Russian suffixes, it retains its basic form (same as the masculine) even when women use it. Thus, Lara's surname is Ravel, same as her father's; same thing with Croy. But there's a curious exception: the Kains. Their surname is obviously based on the eponymous Biblical character, Cain. The only thing is, Cain is not a Russian word, and thus the women of the family should apparently still have the surname Kain. Yet they do not, they use Kaina - which suggests that their surname uses the Russian suffix -in: just someone related to something called Ka-, perfectly normal, totally a word, no primordial killers in sight.

Whether that is simple wordplay, a way to show the lineage deeply assimilated, a way to take the focus off the Biblical relation, or anything else, is up to the reader to decide.

[mehilaiselokuva]

Finnish words by unusual language of origin

*note: this does not list all the languages that the word was borrowed from, only the oldest known origin of it

*also: if you've never seen a word on this list, please don't doxx me. These are all real words. I don't spread misinformation. Why do I still need to put this in my posts

Job: Ammatti (from proto-celtic *ambaxtos) Fun Fact: this is the same root that forms the english word “Ambassador”!

Wagon: Kärry (from proto-celtic *karros) Fun Fact: This is the root that forms the English word “Car”!

Poem: Runo (from proto-celtic *rūnā) Fun Fact: This is the root that forms the English word “Rune”!

Hikikomori: Hikky (from Japanese hikikomori 引き籠もり)

Clam: Simpukka (from Mandarin zhēnzhū 珍珠)

Goods: Tavara (from proto-turkic *tabar) Fun Fact: words descended from this root can be found as far as China and Siberia!

Dungeon, jail: Tyrmä (from proto-turkic *türmä) Fun Fact: This toot extends to Azerbaijan and even Yiddish!

Rauma (city name) (from proto germanic *straumaz meaning stream)

Cherry: Kirsikka (from ancient creek kerasós κερασός which might also have older forms) Fun Fact: this word is widespread, even appearing in Arabic.

God: Jumala (possibly from proto-indo-iranian) Fun Fact: This word could be related to Sanskrit dyumna द्युम्न if it is from proto-indo-iranian