#Yarham (god of death) is pronounced like YAR-em

[westywrites]

THE SPHAERA

We'll start with a bit of a TL;DR of the following little expositional prose about the Gods in the world of Cypress Ascending

Basically:

There used to be many gods, but they were eradicated for the sake of "progress" by the Sphaera and their God-touched worshippers

The Sphaera are the 6 gods who are currently worshipped - Life, Death, and the Stages (the Stages being Infancy, Adolescence, Adulthood, and Old Age)

The God-touched are mortals they give powers and missions

Mortals who still know of the old gods call them the Forgotten, and they believe the Forgotten Gods are not truly gone

The Sphaera are so-called because they are usually represented as a sphere, or more metaphorically, the globe. Life below, Death above, and the Stages on the middle plane. Something like this (a simplistic armillary sphere with stars of different colours labelling the 6 gods):

The easiest way I can think of to explain the Sphaera is with a bit of prose, so the other day on the bus to work, I wrote this. It continues under the cut (about 450 words total)

The Story of the Sphaera

Long ago, the world was ruled by many gods. There was a god for each thing, no matter how insignificant. And the people worshipped whichever god they pleased.

But a god of songbirds does not help humanity. And a god of rainbows should not be more beloved than a god of youth.

So, the Sphaera was formed - six gods united under a common goal, worshipped by those who sought the progress of humankind.

At the foundation, in shadow and soil, is Life - a goddess named Haia. The mortal plane consists of the Stages: Infancy, Adolescence, Adulthood, and Old Age - or Taphla, Hedaph, Raishadin, and Eadim, respectively. Above it all, watching with light and clarity, is Death - Yarham - a benevolent god rarely seen by mortals.

It was not hard to make the mortals believe that the Sphaera were the only true gods. After all, what is there that cannot be associated with Life, Death, or one of the Stages? Their sphere is enough to encompass the whole world.

And so the Sphaera chose their heroes; they granted them powers, gave them missions. Select few mortals were deemed worthy of meeting the gods, of becoming God-touched. And these God-touched worshippers would do anything for their gods.

Thus began the Eradication. The God-touched faithfully followed their missions and systematically destroyed all who would not submit to the true power of the Sphaera, all who would not renounce their feeble "gods" of unimportant affairs. Humankind could only progress in a world with organized rule, dictated by the chosen and most powerful few. Worship of other gods would only hold humanity back. The Sphaera said so, and the God-touched believed.

Centers of worship were destroyed, replaced by temples to the Sphaera. And soon enough, the many gods became few. The Sphaera were proud of the blood on their hands and the weapons of their God-touched warriors.

Within a few generations, the old gods were unknown to mortals - living or dead, it did not matter. All that remained was the Sphaera.

But at the edges of society, there are those who protest the cruelty of the God-touched. There are those who believe knowledge should not be caged, should not only be seen by the few the gods deem worthy. There are those who believe that the progress of humanity should not leave behind songbirds, rainbows, or any "insignificant" thing that shares the natural world. These resilient, dangerous few whisper of the Forgotten. They dare suggest that perhaps, it is time for old gods to be remembered.

Maybe, they whisper, the Forgotten Gods never disappeared entirely. And maybe, just maybe, they did not die without a plan.

Taglist: If you’d like to be tagged in (likely infrequent) updates about this WIP - including mood boards, excerpts, and worldbuilding - please let me know and I’ll add you to the list!

(@lady-redshield-writes I know you didn't ask to be tagged, but you seemed so interested in that other Cypress Ascending post, I thought I'd tag you here - this is the only time I'll do this without your express permission, so if you'd like to be tagged in the future, let me know! But if you don't like being tagged, don't worry! It won't happen again unless you say~~)