#a pantheon of gods with some being race specific

[moltentarts]

Me: I'm finally going to make this comic I've been reworking since I was a high-schooler. Can't be that hard!

The comic: requires extensive world building, character connections so each character can exist outside of the main group, needs new villains because my old ones were never fleshed our or memorable, outfit designs, endings so I know where everything is going, and personality developments for each character so none feel interchangeable.

Me: wow really eating my words.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Do the ethnostates inherent in major fantasy ever feel real weird to you? You’ve got elftopia (full of elves, where everyone speaks elf and worships the elf gods), orc-hold (full of orcs and maybe their slaves, where everyone speaks orc and worships the orc gods), and dwarfton (made by the dwarves! for the dwarves!).

You might have some cosmopolitan areas, usually human-dominant, but those are usually rare enough in-setting that they need to be pointed out separately. Is this just based on a misunderstanding of the medieval era, and the assumption that countries were all racially homogenous?

This has been bouncing around my brain the last little while. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is it just in my head?

I think what you've noticed is a quirk of derivative fantasy writing, which like a lot of hangups with the genre originates in people trying to crib Tolkien's work without really understanding what he was going for:

Though it contains a lot of detail, Tolkien's world is not grounded. It functions according a narrative logic that changes depending on what work in particular you're focusing on at the time (The Hobbit is a fairytale full of tricks and riddles, Lord of the Rings is a heroic epic, The Silmirilion is a legendary history).

One of the reasons the races are separate is to instill the feeling of wonder in the hobbits as POV characters for the reader, other folk live in far off places and are supposed to feel more legendary than our comparatively mundane friends from the shire. The Movies captured this well where going east in middle earth was like going back in time to a more and more mythologized past.

In real life, people don't stay static for thousands of years, no matter how long their people live. They meet, mingle, war and trade. Empires rise and fall creating shrapnel as they go, cultures adapt to a changing environment. This means that any geographic cross section you make is going to be a collage of different influences where uniformity is a glaring aberration.

What the bad Tolkien knockoffs did was take his image of a mythical world and tried to make it run in a realistic setting. Tolkien can say the subterranean dwarven kingdom of Erebor lasted for a thousand years without having to worry about birthrates or demographic shifts or the logistics of farming in a cave because he's writing the sort of story where those things don't matter. D&D and other properties like it however INSIST that their worlds are grounded and realistic but have to bend over backwards to keep things static and hegemonic.

Likewise contributing to the "ethnostate" feeling is early d&d (backbone of the fantasy genre that it is) being created by a bunch of White Midwestern Americans who were not only coming from a background of fantasy wargaming but were working during the depths of the coldwar. Hard borders and incompatible ideologies, cultural hegemony and intellectual isolation, a conception of the world that focused around antagonism between US and THEM. These were people born in the era of segregation for whom the idea of cultural and racial osmosis was alien, to the point where mingling between different fantasy races produced the "mongrelman" monster, natural pickpockets who combined the worst aspects of all their component parts, unwelcome in good society who were most often found as slaves.

This inability to appreciate cultural exchange is likewise why the central d&d pantheon has a ton of human gods with specific carveouts for other races (eventually supplemented with a bunch of race specific minor gods who are various riffs on the same thing). Rather than being universal ideals, the gods were seen as entities just as tribalistic as their followers.

[laurelsofhighever]

Unpopular opinion time: I really don’t care for the Titans as a concept. Or rather, I don’t like the way they fit into the worldbuilding of Thedas. It’s a symptom of this ongoing problem BioWare has where everything has to have some grand, shocking twist and an intricate backstory that connects with the intricate backstory of everything else. It’s like a slow power creep to the lore that honestly reminds me most of Supernatural in how desperate it is to outdo itself.

The Dalish Creators aren’t apocryphal characters used to impart moral lessons or explain natural phenomena – they were real, and they weren’t really gods, just super powerful mages who enslaved a bunch of people and used them to build statues!

The Fade isn’t just another, natural layer of existence that only a few can tap into – it was created by Some Guy who decided to fight the Actually Real Elvhen Gods and then had a nap about it for several thousand years!

Lyrium isn’t just a toxic mineral that causes neurological degradation but also happens to enhance magical ability – it’s actually the crystalised blood of an ancient race of giant beings that were hunted to extinction by the Actually Real Elvhen Gods!

The dwarves don’t have Stone Sense because of their specific cultural identity and because their society that’s based underground needs to know how to navigate without the sun – they were literally created by an ancient race of giant beings who decided to make them to the same vague shape as other bipedal mammals for some reason!

(these aren’t the only examples, they do it with everything from character backstories to religious schisms)

It’s like they don’t trust the player to suspend their disbelief in a fantasy world where magic and dragons are real, and the ironic thing is that by dissecting everything instead of just letting these story elements just be, it makes everything about Thedas feel smaller, and less like an intricate, organic world.

In DAO, we’re introduced to many gods – Avvar, Elvhen, Andrastian, as well as the dwarven concept of “the Stone” – and they exist in the role that gods fill in the real world: cultural artifacts that create a shared sense of identity. It makes sense for there to be similarities between the Elvhen Creators and the Avvar pantheon, given the amount of interaction between the two groups before they became isolated by persecution. Similarly, it makes sense that dwarves would have an entirely different theology structured around the material that literally encases them their whole lives and marks them as distinct from the surface-dwelling races. to reduce these belief systems to single, quantifiable truths makes as much sense as trying to claim the Real Zeus was [specific guy] from [specific time period]. It also does such disrespect to the individuals who make up these cultures, and who would have, through history, changed it simply by being part of it.

With the Titans specifically, they weren’t needed. We already had a concept of dwarves that worked well as a framework for the stories being told in the games: insular, rigid caste system, hub of the lyrium trade, collective PTSD from a millennia of fighting darkspawn. It’s cultural background radiation that adds motive and flavour for character actions, and that’s all it needs to be.

We don’t need to know precisely how Stone Sense works, just that it does. We don’t need to know where dwarves – or elves, or qunari, or humans – really come from, it’s enough for the story that they exist within a collective cultural identity. We don’t need to know what lyrium is, we just need to know that bad things happen when characters play with it.

It's fantasy. A wizard did it. The wizard shouldn’t feel the need to pull back his own curtain and then also rip the casing off the mechanism, just to prove how clever he is.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Day 24 - Idun (Request)

Race: Megami

Alignment: Light-Neutral

April 23rd, 2024

accidentally spoiled this one, oops.

Norse mythology, as any amateur theologian would likely know, is a bizarre beast to look into- a winding complex of bastardized tales and Christian retcons that makes even some of its most iconic gods appear scantly and obscurely in its stories. However, our demon of the day is one of the most recurring goddesses in the entire pantheon- the goddess of apples and youth, Idun.

Well, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but a Norse god appearing in more stories than one in the Prose Edda is an accomplishment in-and-of-itself. Idun, also known as Idunn, Iduna, or Iðunn, is the ancient Norse deity who resides over apples, spring, youth, and rejuvenation- she was likely well worshipped in her place, representing such pleasant thoughts (outside of spring due to the scourge of pollen, but let's not get into that) and ideas. Her name even seems to be based upon ideas of kindness and healthiness, as it's based upon the old Norse words ið, meaning "again," and unna, meaning "to love."

All of this, alongside her association with one of the best fruits (objectively), apples, seems to paint her in the light of being a goddess that the common people looked up to and worshipped for a nice, peaceful life. Idun is also the wife of Bragi, the god of poetry, something that adds on to this lovingly creative persona- she seemed to have been a lesser goddess, yet one still revered and loved for her role in cultivating a beautiful year with fantastic food. Even today, in some pagan circles, she is still worshipped, as she was in the past as well, a goddess representing good spring and fortune.

Idun's most famous myth comes about with those same apples she treasures so dearly- they weren't any old apples, you see, as the ones she specifically grew were apples of immortality. These apples were relied upon by the pantheon to remain young and spritely (likely leading to her title as the goddess of youth given her role in cultivating those apples) and she protected the orchard where they were grown diligently. However, a jötunn by the name of Þjazi forced Loki's hand, getting him to drag Idun away from her orchard only to kidnap her. As a consequence of her absence, the gods soon began to grow old and frail, and finding nobody else responsible, they found the blame to be on the trickster god present.

The gods weren't mad with him specifically, though- they knew that Loki wasn't that petty and mean to steal the immortal apples without reason. As a result, in an effort to make him right his wrongs, they sent him out to retrieve Idun from the claws of the jötunn, Loki adopting the form of a falcon and chasing after the giant in great pursuit. After a while of searching, he found the (likely terrified, or maybe even annoyed) Idun, who turned into a single small nut to let him escape with her untouched. Shortly after Loki makes his daring escape, the giant comes back to find his captive goddess gone with the wind, and chases after Loki in hot pursuit in the form of a massive eagle. However, the gods devised a plan to stop this rampaging jötunn, causing the eagle to run right into a then-lit pyre and setting him ablaze. With Idun returned to them, they went back to eating from the immortal apple stock, and all lived happily ever after. Until Ragnarok stuff happens, but let's not worry about that!

While Idun does fill a role as an archetypal 'damsel in distress,' her main story does show how important she actually is to the Norse pantheon; without her, they wouldn't be able to live. As a result, while a minor deity, she has a major role in the pantheon- one that is reflected perfectly in her role in SMT V.

In SMT V, Idun's only current appearance, she appears as a late-game healer and support demon with a whole sidequest attached- one that I can't recant here due to not playing V, but it seems fun. Design-wise, she bears a striking resemblance to Little Red Riding Hood (as well as Aigis for some reason), something which feels obvious given her role as the owner of the divine orchard with a wicker basket holding her magical apples, drawing clear parallels with the apples that Red Riding Hood delivers to her grandma.

She also tends to hit the griddy.

Why? Because it's cute!

Overall, this charmingly designed demon from one of the most famous mythologies out there gets an A in my book. The influence behind her design is clear, it's cute and effective, and it works given her folkloric prescedent.

[nogetron]

El, the original Semitic creator god. An omnipotent creator, all things emerged from his hands. With Reality bending around his fingers, El is the highest authority across the pantheon, Even greater than the king of the gods Baal. The specifics on how El created the universe is still a mystery, but it is believed that he created the cosmos from the nothingness around him. After creation, El investigated the seas of Chaos that flowed from him, among the waves bobbed the heads of two women, that of Asherah and Raḥmayyu. Curious, El took them home and began cooking a bird, he asked them that once the bird was done if they could call to him as either father or husband, whichever one they picked he would behave as such, once the bird was done they called to him as husband. The following intimate night resulted in the birth of Shachar and Shalim, the gods of Dusk and Dawn. From his coupling with his two wives the pantheon of Canaan was born. Baal, Mot, Yam, Astarte, Anat, all of them came from the light of El. El oversaw and organized the race for the throne of the king of the gods, a competition in which his children could campaign to be bestowed the throne by El. During the race, the sea god Yam gained much influence, with him having the favor of El’s wife Asherah. However, during a gathering of the pantheon, Yam insults the entire pantheon including his own father El. But following a duel with Baal, Yam is defeated and forced to pull out of the race, leaving Baal to be crowned the king of the gods. With the help of Asherah, Baal is able to convince El to authorize the construction of a palace. However during a feast ushered by the newly appointed Baal, the death god Mot consumes him. El joins the universe in grieving the loss of his son. Despite being in the throes of grief, El dreams that Baal is still alive. Elated, El sends the sun goddess Shapsh to rescue his son. After his return Baal once again begins combat with Mot, that is until El steps in, threatening Mot that if he continues he’d annihilate him, causing Mot to back down. In a separate myth, during a feast of the gods, El gets outrageously drunk, but is ultimately healed.

El was an incredibly important deity, it cannot be understated just how important he was. His worship evolved and transmitted into many different gods, the Syrian Dagan, the Mesopotamian Anu Enlil and Marduk, the Hurrian Kumarbi, and his Hittite form Elkunirsa. El also corresponds to the Chinese Shangdi, the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda, and the Slavic Rod and Svarog, with some of these gods possibly developing out of El. The Egyptian Ptah also has traces of El within his worship, as both share the epithet of “Eternal”, however among the Egyptians Kothar-wa-khasis was supposed to be cognate with Ptah. The most important theological relation El holds is his connection to the modern Abrahamic God, as El is the direct originator of the Deity. Originally Known as Yhwh, this deity originated as the Israeli form of El, similar to how Dagan was the Syrian form of the god. Yhwh was a divine warrior god married to Asherah, with their children being the other Canaan gods like Baal and Astarte, all these deities held divine messengers known as Malak. Yhwh was the foremost worshipped deity in ancient Israel, with the vast majority of prayer being offered to them. However during the subjugation of Israel under Babylon, the monotheistic Yhwh emerged as a form of resistance against their Babylonian rulers. The deities of Canaan were demonized and absorbed into Yhwh and his Malak, who became the angels of Abrahamic faith. The naming scheme of angels keeps their relation with El, as seen in Raphael the oldest name among the angels. The modern God shares many of their other titles with El, including El Shaddai, Elohim (the term referring to the Canaanite pantheon meaning “the children of El), and El Elyon. Phoenicia also held Canaan’s gods and myths, including El. However due to being conquered by the Greeks, Phoenicia was forced to Hellenize their culture, with it essentially becoming Greek mythology with a Canaanite coat of paint. This is seen most prominently in their recorded creation myth, in which El wasn’t the creator or original god, but rather the son of the sky and earth who in turn were created by El Elyon, which was originally a name for El himself. El is later deposed by Baal, obviously this myth is heavily based on the greek theogony, with El taking the place of Chronus and Baal with Zeus. My personal theory on the origin of El is that he may have developed from the African creator gods, like Ra, Nyame, Amma, and even possibly Zanahary. El held many titles, such as “the bull god”, “Creator of creatures”, “the gracious one”, “father of the gods” and “father of man”. In many god lists from ancient Canaan, El is preceded by Ilib, a character not mentioned in any other texts. Ilib’s placement has led to the idea that it was possibly a forerunner deity to El, however no other texts support this, and the belief that El was the original deity contradicts this. Ilib is used as a term to refer to dead ancestors in Canaan, so most likely the Ilib in the god lists refers to the familial dead ancestors. The word El is used as a term to denote a deity in Canaanite language, evolving from Il, in texts however El himself is distinguished from this word by using ha El meaning “the great El”.

[awritingcaitlin]

Semi-abbreviated History of Tyrysius

Most everyone believes that the high gods created the planet, brought about different peoples in various images, and then left. There are a few competing ideas, however.

Those particular entrenched in the faith of the cat lords recognize that they are not native to this planet, but they can still conquer it. The cats are actually closer to being right.

There was a Creator who made the planet and gave it someone to look after it. She was the first high goddess. She had other gods and goddesses in her pantheon.

This went on for centuries, if not millennia. However, when the planet started failing, she opened her gates to allow others to come and breathe new life into the world.

These are those "high gods" who "created" people. Except really they were just shepherds basically. Of both people and lower gods. None of them have the power to create from nothing.

After the Schism War and the end of the Age of Intervention, it wasn't so much that the high gods left, it was that gods were literally attacking one another and absorbing each other's power.

It gets way more complicated than that and most people alive today have no idea what all happened. They're just stuck on the very simplistic idea of creators who left.

But let's get more into the weeds. How long have people existed on Tyrysius? Did they just appear at some point? How did they appear? Who, if any, were first? What does this have to do with the gods?

Riela’s formal education had been cut prematurely short for a plethora of reasons and she hadn’t ever gone back. However, she’d become a voracious reader since. She knew that the gods had placed each race of people onto Tyrysius and had encouraged them to thrive.

Prevalent beliefs include people were created by the gods, or arrived on a fertile planet with the gods' help. Everyone would have gotten there around the same time, and if anything, the elves were first.

However, ruins outside Timernis revealed bodies dating back before any previously recorded history (that they know of). That's now a subject of significant debate in academic circles.

Nathaniel's doctoral thesis is about this topic. And, like many doctorate students, you get him talking about it, and he won't shut up. He wants to explain his findings.

“It’s about how the sitah might have been the original inhabitants of Tyrysius,” Adler said. He got several raised eyebrows and he repeated what he’d told Riela the other night, which felt like such a long time ago now. He mentioned the sitah bones dating back before the Age of Intervention and what that may suggest since there were multiple sets of sitah bones and a suspicious lack of anything else. He got a lot of intrigued looks.

It's making archaeologists question their dating practices. Are they wrong? Or are they right? Everyone is up in arms about who may have been the original people.

“See,” Adler explained. “The generally accepted doctrine is that everyone came to the planet at the same time. The larger sitah were there as protectors of the smaller races. Elves were the bridge across generations. Gnomes were known for their technology and dwarves their architecture. Halflings were the connection to nature. Humans were a balance between them all. No one asked for the orcs, but they showed up too. And then the cat-species had their own separate deals under their own pantheon.”

What they haven't quite pegged out the specifics of yet, is that civilizations have rose and fell many times on Tyrysius. The world also looked a lot different before the Cataclysm.

“The belief that we all got here at relatively the same time is the most prevalent one, but the finding of these bones in an archeological dig in Eastern Schmiedland several hundred miles north of Berthingtonn with no other sets of bones comparable implies that maybe the belief is wrong. What if the sitah have been around longer than anyone else? What if, perhaps, the sitah were here first, and the others came later?”

Religious doctrine allows (and honestly encourages) the argument between different theories because it distracts from the truth the Temples aren't even sure of anymore.

“The first belief,” Rinnie continued. “Is that the High Gods all got together and created us for a certain purpose, or that each of the High Gods designed a type of person in their image. The exceptions being the dwarves, who maintain they originated from the Stone. These first Stone-born were the original Ancestors who birthed the dwarven race.”

History became very fractured (intentionally) after the Age of Intervention. It became even more fractured after the Cataclysm (unintentionally.)

“The other exception is the varying cat races, who believe that their separate pantheon of Cat Lords created the tigrins, tirins, and pumins each to their own purpose. This theory does not, however, explain where the orcs came from, unless a particularly powerful demon or less than well-intentioned god made them and is not owning up to it. As we haven’t seen any orcs since the Cataclysm really, we can’t exactly ask any current opinions.”

This begs the question: what if no one originated on the planet at all? And does not answer: how did people come to Tyrysius? Where is the proof for any of this?

“The second basic belief is that all of the races were traveling without a home anymore and came upon Tyrysius which was empty of sentient life but otherwise habitable. This one explains where the orcs came from better, but there are no life-ships to back this up—though I know that at one point we colonized the moon. This one also doesn’t really explain our relationship to dragons, but that’s splitting hairs.”

So, why argue about it at all? Well, some of it has to do with ownership and who might have more rights to the planet. It's easiest to think that the older, more steadfast, peoples were around first.

“Ownership,” Adler said, answering the same way he’d answered to Riela when she’d asked. “The elves and dwarves both want to believe they’re the first even within generally accepted doctrine. The humans know they can’t claim that they were here first, so they’re certainly not going to complain when something suggests they were placed on the planet around the same time as others.”

Many people think it's terrifying that the sitah, a bigger race, might own it. Especially because the larger people could feasibly take over if they wanted to.

“What would happen if the sitah suddenly got ideas about being the first on the planet?” Killian suggested in the hypothetical. “Not that there are really any full-sitah left. But Timernis exists with a very large partial-sitah population. We’re bigger, stronger, and tougher to kill. What if they decided they owned the place and tried to conquer it? Of course, this doesn’t take into account that they’re outnumbered and the bigger you are, the more you are at risk if the world goes famine again.”

What if religious doctrine is only trying to keep the planet's population from fighting amongst themselves? (More than they already are.) What if it's something else entirely?

“No one really wants the sitah to start acting like they own the planet,” Kanjo said, leaning back in his seat. “They also don’t want other people fighting against the Timernans in a knee-jerk plan to preemptively eliminate the supposed sitah problem.”  

Yet, regardless of religious fears, scientists and historians plunge forward for the sake of knowledge. There are sitah bones dating back 17,000 years while the oldest elf bones only date back 12,000.

“Well,” he said. “Why sitah and no one else? But also because the aura dating of those skeletons found in Lorbush have undoubtable anatomically unique features that place them as sitah. And the aura dating goes back twelve-thousand years. And the ones found in Macrait are close to seventeen-thousand.”

Seventeen thousand years goes back before the Age of Intervention is believed to have started. Current theories put that at about 8000 years ago. This is also how old the oldest elf bones date back to.

“Yeah but that’s back before the Age of Intervention even started, right?” Mica asked. “Theoretically,” Adler said. “We estimate that the Age of Intervention lasted about five thousand years and like Rinnie said, there are little-to-no records before then.”

The oldest dwarf bones date back 7300 years. But, older architecture is larger, as if built for bigger people by bigger people. So what is anyone to think?

“Regardless of how long the Age of Intervention lasted, the oldest elf bones we have dates back to roughly eight-thousand years and the oldest dwarf seven-thousand-three-hundred. Both well within the range of when the Age of Intervention spanned. That doesn’t even get into the fact that there is architecture in the older cities like the lower levels of Berthingtonn and other places in Schmiedland that were obviously built by for larger-framed people.”

While there were once extensive historical records, the Thadan-Yurel War and the subsequent Cataclysm destroyed or destroyed access to a large percentage of them. Now there are holes.

Records from 1000+ years ago are hard to come by and what's available is fractured. Additionally, getting records from more than 3000 years ago is nearly impossible.

Academics try to patch those holes, but it's not easy. And, as is the case with any historical writings, they're written by the winners. Someone is always trying to hide something.

Anyone can find the existing historical records in libraries, museums, temples, etc. However, they'll run into the problem that the records only go back so far.

This era is the common era. Before that was the Age of Intervention which lasted about 5000 years. Before the AOI, there's conflicting thoughts as to what it was.

Common questions include: Did the world even exist? Did people? What kind of people? Who were the first people? Was magic different? There's not much literature one way or another.

It's clear if you look closely that someone is trying to hide major parts of Tyrysian history. The question is, who? No one has answered this question yet.

Everyone is taught history in school, though it varies by area. Different countries place emphasis on different things and bias is highly prevalent.

For example, Berthingtonn considers the war won 300 years ago a fight for their independence. Schmiedland considers the same war a mixed bag because they gained land, but not all of Berthingtonn.

There are museums and exhibits in all of the big cities and some smaller ones. Several gods have temples that are museums because they are gods of history and knowledge.

Some museums are free to attend, others require a small fee. The biggest cost is usually getting to one unless you are already in a bigger city.

For Berthingtonn in specific, the Inner City has way more museums than say, South Town. South Town has a couple of exhibits but nothing large.

And while people who live in South Town can go to the Inner City, and many schools do fieldtrips as part of the regular education. There's commonly deals between museums and schools.

There's lots of ancient ruins, some are still being discovered! Ancient Esternia is pretty much just archeological digs. Though there is an important library there that will become relevant.

Berthingtonn has tunnels that go well below sea level and people can only reasonably get so deep in that mountain before it becomes impossible to traverse.

The oldest city still standing is in fact, Berthingtonn, which had its Wall and Shield completed in the Age of Intervention several thousand years ago.

Berthingtonn's shield was meant to stop all major natural disasters as well as oncoming invasions. However, it was not prepared for some extra-terrestrial object to come plummeting down.

Said extra-terrestrial object damaged Berthingtonn's shield, took out part of their legendary wall, and created the Crater Sea all in one go. (Also it killed a dragon and caused a worldwide ice age.)

This is what's now known as The Cataclysm. Tyrysius still hasn't recovered from it. Since that point, magic has been less prevalent, weather less predictable, and lifespans shorter.

Berthingtonn has existed seemingly as long as time itself. (That isn't quite true but the only people who remember otherwise are not your average mortals and most are deities of some form.)

Current society dates back about a thousand years. Most current traditions and beliefs came about post-Cataclysm, which was about 1200 years ago.

Note: Tyrysius is always at war.

The Grainbelt War in the early 3000s was massive and horrific, the worst years being 05-06. That was only 9 years ago.

Essentially, Schmiedland and Perinathia are always going at it over the Grainbelt.

There was the Berthan-Eswaili Conflict in the 2950s. South Efrium Civil War in the 2930s. That resulted in South Efrium ceasing to exist and becoming Eswaisil.

Since then, Eswaisil wants to conquer Berthingtonn but has thus far been unable to.

The Yurel-Edansa War in the early 2700s, which is largely still relevant because Edan elves live that long. They're frequently going at it over ideology.

The big Berthington-Schmiedland War also happened around that time.

Schmiedland and Perinathia are constantly fighting over the Grain Belt, the border constantly shifting. They recently signed a new peace treaty. We'll see how long that lasts.

Edansa and the Yurels fight frequently. An old blood war over ideology. Currently, however, the Yurels are experiencing a Civil War. So there's no warring between them and Edansa presently.

Over the years, the Great Efrium Empire (with Berthingtonn as it's center) split into North and South Efrium. South Efrium eventually became Eswaisil - whose border with Perinathia is stagnant.

North Efrium then lost a lot of ground to Schmiedland and now Berthingtonn is a large city-state with an Inner Town and surrounding towns outside the Wall.

Eswaisil tried really hard to go after Berthingtonn a few decades ago, but it's been a cold war since. That tension is only going to get thicker as the years go on.

For reference, Heist is set 5 years before TBW. So the end of the Grainbelt war is fresher, and Eswaisil isn't about ready to declare war on Berthingtonn... Yet.

Holidays include:

Berthingtonn has Independence Week which is largely for Berthans but really anyone can celebrate.

Similarly, Schmiedland has Schmiedland Day.

The Yurels do a lot of ancestral worship so those are more private and reserved events.

Religiously speaking, most deities will allow for non-worshippers to join in celebrations because it nets them worship. However, only known followers and clergy can participate in the more sacred parts.

When you have gods that walk around on the planet, the line between history, legend, and myth, gets really fuzzy. Sometimes, the more people try to define it, the fuzzier it gets.

The language of Bûrdæn started declining at the end of the Age of Intervention. In part because other languages were more widespread, in part because of the stigma against it.

It's impossible to learn it now because any books written in it are long forgotten or already destroyed. However, there are more and more people around who seem to know it lately.

The term "frozen wastes" is an expletive interjection at the beginning of a sentence, usually said in surprise. It stems from the fact that much of the world is in fact a frozen waste as a result of the Cataclysm.

Historical fiction exists as a genre on Tyrysius. Nathaniel and Riela both love reading it. Killian too, but he's more critical of creative liberties.

[botanicalcanopus]

so like what denizens do you think the beta trolls have [no dupes with the humans except for echidna, and i'm reasonably sure gamzee had yaldabaoth on account of his connection to english]

I mainly stayed in the Greek/Roman side due to how much more I know about them and the trends of that pantheon being more often used. My takes for zero(ish) repeats:

Aradia: Atropos => The deity who cuts the thread of life and works with her sisters to help determine the natural lifespan of a mortal. Chosen because of Aradia's short life as well as her ability to commune with the dead.

Tavros: Aeolus => A ruler of winds that aided both gods and mortals. Chosen for Tavros as he seemingly is weak and has some very easy to blow through nervousness that becomes steadfast and eager like strong winds that Aeolus controlled.

Sollux: Thanatos => The god and one personification of death. Also a twin to Hypnos.

Karkat: Styx => Goddess of the River Styx, oaths, and another death deity. She specifically was used a form of swearing on something as she was vengeful and any oaths promised/swore under her name were guaranteed to be upheld or there would be extreme consequences.

Nepeta: Anteros => God of requited love. Should be pretty obvious due to her love of shipping but also related to her unrequited love she sadly deals with. Hopefully Anteros can give her some peace over that.

Kanaya: Echidna (as stated in the ask)

Terezi: Mnemosyne => Goddess of wisdom but specifically memories. I put her with Terezi due to how Terezi's looking to the past is part of her personality. I mean this in the sense of both ability to help retcon things as well as her trials she would hold relief on witnesses testifying what they remember

Vriska: Cetus (in the actual story)/Eos (my choice) => Goddess of the dawn who delivers light. Also known to have many desires that she acts upon without others consideration and is known to be a bit selfish. I think a brat dealing with a brat would be fun as a denizen challenge for Vriska.

Equius: Harpocrates => Greek rendition of Horus that is deity over secrets and silence. Pretty obvious void connection but also pulls on Equius's land which was the Land of Caves and Silence

Gamzee: Yaldabaoth (as stated in the ask), but I'd also agree with it

Eridan: Zelus => God of eagerness, jealousy, and the root of the word zeal. He is also one of the few gods assigned to be under Zeus and sees that his command is done. I think jealous and zealous can sum up the positive and negative traits of Eridan.

Feferi: Hera => The Goddess of marriage, women, family, and main wife of Zeus. This is more a reference to the Peixes lineage, as it is matriarchal, the leader of the troll race, long-lived, and all about royalty. I think Hera and Fef would butt heads and the presented Choice would be interesting.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

okay, i've heard you're one of the 'greek gods are white' people. how do you explain 'zeus athiops', considering linguistic research proved that's a word for what we now call Black. how do you explain drastically different depictions of the same deities in Syria and Lybia and more. how do you explain that a third of the pantheon have eastern roots. like girl... please get out of that mindset.

i think you need to legit drop that whole whiteness thing. it'd reductive as fuck, to us Europeans too. leave it to the people who made it, adhering to whiteness is just erasing heritages.

If that's what you got out of the discourse, you have a really USAmerican thinking pal, albeit not a USian. Or perhaps someone simplified this to you in this way and you took it word-by-word. Let me tell you what the discourse is actually about, and why there's a problem even when the Greek gods are depicted (for example) blue-eyed and blond, like N. Europeans.

It is about the treatment of pantheons by Western nations, a treatment with colonizing and imperialistic attitudes which separate the gods from their culture. A treatment that ignores depictions of a culture with an extremely large history and reduces it to distinctly Western and Anglophone pop-culture and Fandom.

Just because this happens to a nation which is considered generally light-skinned it doesn't mean it shouldn't alarm you. And the complaints of Greeks only alarm you when they address changes from lighter to significantly darker appearance, and not the opposite.

I bet you didn't send Greeks any hatemail when they were complaining about actors being too pasty and saying "This person doesn't even look like a Greek. More Irish. They even have an Irish accent…" We had this problem for centuries. N. Europeans had this super pale depiction of our gods which they considered "noble" and they saw actual Greeks are dark barbarians who are "not like the original Greeks". Now this type of projection is happening again, in order to make the West feel better, and we are actually told how we look and don't look.

Now we constantly hear "You are too light to be Greek"/"You don't look Greek" because another stereotype has settled among the powerful nations that control our image. Needless to say, this is negative too, just by the nature of being untrue, and harmful to Greek people. But this doesn't seem to worry you. You only worry when the West tells you to worry because now the cause is "noble" according to them. They never stopped seeing themselves as the righteous and noble ones. Fuck other cultures and their specific issues and histories, right?

Treating popular pantheons as a blank canvas will happen to more "races" and ethnicities when they start being considered "white" specifically in the US, our "beloved" planetarch nation. (There's already some discourse about Mexicans and Asians being the "new white"). In 50 years perhaps your grandchild will shout at a Mexican for not understanding why "it is okay" for the deity Tezcatlipoca to be depicted half-Chinese half-Nigerian.

The same thing happened to the Greeks. In many parts of the world, Greeks are still "non-white" and in the US we only recently became "white". The Middle Easterners and N.Africans are also "White" on paper. The Greek Whiteness is also only on paper, since the Westerners get the hickeys every time they hear our names, or see a part of our culture which so resembles the Middle Eastern ones. Or they clock us as Mexicans, Arabs, Turks etc. But I digress.

My point so far is that this Western approach, in its effort to be progressive, has used pantheons of foreign cultures in a way that it negates these cultures and their depictions, or their beliefs. (Something that I wouldn't call progressive)

Onto the depictions themselves. As you understand, me - and the overwhelming majority of Greeks - wants to maintain them. To this day, within the Greek culture I haven't seen depictions of native gods as - we would say today - Black. If we had some that would be okay. But we don't. I reckon, even other lands who got Hellenized didn't change the "race" of these gods. Sometimes they were alterations, yes, but to the point we are talking about a new deity, and certainly not a deity the Greeks would recognize or worship. Then we are not talking about Greek mythology, but mythology of other nations which, at some point, came in contact with the Greek culture.

But, again, it doesn't look like the Greek gods had different races in the depictions of other nations. Even today the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations don't racebend the gods. They see them as they are in the ancient depictions. Perhaps they indeed saw these gods looking a bit more like them but if you think Greek people and their neighbors (N. Africans, M. Easterners) belong to different races… you might want to check some racist notions you might hold.

"Aithiops" can mean "glowing" and "of burnt face". (αἴθω < πρωτοϊνδοευρωπαϊκή ρίζα *aidʰ- (φλέγω) = burn/on fire + όψη = face/look) It's an Epithet (an adjective) of Zeus on the island of Chios (Lycophron, Cass. 537, with the note of Tzetzes.). You can see where this island is and you may easily understand that it had more or less the same population as the rest of Greek areas, in which "Black" individuals were very rare.

But the most important thing is, we also haven't found a depiction of Zeus as a "Black" individual. If we had found a statue with the features of a "Black" man and the name Zeus underneath, I'd be happy to say "Some Greeks indeed saw Zeus as Black". I don't mind the "race", I mind how everyone gets in mental gymnastics to try and defend a lie just because it sounds progressive.

Perhaps in their minds this aspect of Zeus had the appearance of a Middle Eastern but... this is not what you call another race. Even today Greeks don't consider Middle Easterners and South Arabs a different "race". Also, as I said in the beginning, it could just mean "Glowing Zeus", like his face is glowing so much as if it is on fire. One word can have more than one use. The "αιθ-" root is also used about the sky, because it's glowing. The word Aether/Aitheras which we still use in Greece (αιθέρας/αιθέρες) refers to the skies. Maybe he had a "appearance/face like the sky"

Also, very important: Back then the region where the country of Ethiopia is today was called Abyssinia. The Greeks, in the period you're thinking about, probably had no contact with the land which today is Ethiopia. Aethiopia was a whole region, possibly the Middle East. (See the post here where many sources are gathered)

The first depiction of Andromeda, an Aethiopian princess as "Black" came from Ovid, who came much later and who is not part of the Greek narrative. He's also very unreliable because with his stories he wanted to oppose the status quo and therefore the mythological figures of his time. The Greek depictions have Andromeda and her family look more or less like Greeks. (Otherwise, they would have noted the difference in appearance)

Plus, Andromeda and Perseus birthed the nation of Persians. As you know, while there are "Black" Persians the population, in general, is not "Black". Plus, I am not even sure the Greeks had contact with the "Black" Persians because they are mostly extremely far south. Such a small population so down south it's not something to base the whole Look of a Nation on, at least.

It's the Northwesterners that always use the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations as an excuse to disrespect these depictions. (Meanwhile the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations don't agree with this. They never get ACTUALLY asked)

Not to mention, the changes the western nations make are not part of a cultural exchange and they don't happen naturally through cultural osmosis. It's plain theft and ownership over the gods of a foreign culture, which they have been doing for some centuries now. The Western cultures are dominant over the Greek one. We are towards the bottom of the ladder socioeconomically in Europe. The US is literally a puppet-master of the Greek nation (and many other nations). Our government can't even fart without checking with the US. Oh, and the US also helped the 70's Junta rise to power.

Lastly, the Greek gods don't have "Anatolian origin". This rhetoric (which again implies that ancient people of a region were all the same stock) has been refuted. Nobody "stole" gods from anyone. There are so many posts on these blogs about it. Greeks were also in Anatolia for 3.000 years before the genocide, so we are not even talking about separate regions. (But I know that you saw them as separate so I approached the argument the way you meant it)

There are common roots, common beginnings, perhaps but the difference grew so much that neighboring nations had distinct gods. They also believed that their gods were distinct. You have to respect that, and also you can't lump them all together because they "all look the same to you" or some sort of a similar mindset. The Greek gods are not interchangeable with the Assyrian gods etc.

One or two, like Dionysus, indeed were brought from outside. But most are considered native to the land. (Aphrodite, too, is native to the island of Cyprus) And the Greek gods are considered ethnically Greek. The Greeks considered themselves born by these gods. Each line had a god that gave birth to it or claimed to descend from a god. See more at the end of this great video: (Video with Timestamp) Again, the Greek gods are not ethnically Japanese, or ethnically Argentinian, or ethnically Norwegian. They come from a specific culture, with specific stories and appearances. You cannot imply otherwise without making all cultures a disservice.

You can see more discussions about this, including why the argument "But a minority must be represented!" kind of argument.

Some are a bit old but the general point is the same.

*In my language "Black" for a person is not exactly a positive term so it's in quotations. The term "race" is also extremely bad in Europe. I leave this disclaimer cause I know no one gives a shit if non-Anglophones must say slurs to convey a point, as long as we all speak the USAmerican way :) We also know that the individuals I am talking about weren't identifying as "Black".

[monowritestoomuch]

This Is Going To Get Us Burned For Being Witches, Isn’t It?

Chapter 2: Welcome to New York

Notes: Sorry it’s short but I’ve been sick :/ But it’s here now and I’m no longer sick! The third chapter should be out in the next two weeks! So sorry for the hold up! Hope you like this chapter and please do look up James McHenry! There is also a fanfiction that I took a lot of inspiration from that you can find on ao3! If you want the link, I’ll be happy to link it! Enjoy!

Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, 

I felt myself waving in and out of consciousness several times over a rippled sector of time. I didn’t know how long I had been in and out of consciousness before I’d awoken.

Abruptly, I might add, from a horrendous nightmare. Something was trying to speak to me,a voice that made me want to itch every inch of my skin off, that made me shiver in agonizing discomfort.

I shot up from why I was laying, wincing at the pain in my back, my head aching. My breathing was rapid, sweat shooting down my brow, my right hand over my chest. 

My heart was pounding in my ears, hearing lapping in and out. I could hear someone saying something, my vision blurry as they ran into the room shouting. 

They gently pushed my body back down, speaking something in my general direction. My hearing rang briefly before returning to my general state of hearing.

“-ou can hear me now?” I heard the fellow ask, nodding in response. He sighed in relief, running a hand through his brown hair. “I’ve already fed you far too much nectar, wouldn’t want you to explode now would we!” He laughed dryly at his own less than humorous joke.

“Who-who are you, sir?” I asked, holding my aching head against the cold, clammy palm of my right hand. 

“James McHenry at your service, sir!” the man laughed wetly. “But you may call me James, or McHenry. I’m the medic here at Camp Half-Blood, son of Apollo, cabin seven,” he answered. 

I sent him a look of confusion at the words. What did he mean by son of Apollo? As in the Greek god? Did that mean the gods were real? These thoughts raced through my mind at the speed of an archer shooting on a horse. 

“Right, you don’t know what any of this means yet–my formal apologies,” he said, interrupting my constant stream of thoughts. “The Greek gods, the ones you’ve heard fabled stories about, that have seemed fictional for your whole life, are real, and they exist in our modern day and age–” he rolled up the sleeves of his navy blue coat. “There are the twelve Olympians, the twelve main gods and goddesses of the pantheon, who you are most likely one of the children of, although you could be a child of one of the minor gods, which means you’d stay in cabin eleven, Hermes cabin, which is the same even if you stay unclaimed as you are now. He’s the god of travelers, meaning most demi-gods of minor gods or unclaimed, stay in his cabin, in addition to his own children.”

“And this is where the children of the Greek gods stay? What about the other pantheons, do they exist too?” I asked each question in rapid succession of the next. 

“Yes, the children of the Greek gods specifically stay here. I do believe the Norse are somewhere down in Boston, the Romans, if I can recall, are located in North Carolina. The Celtic are in New Hampshire and some are here in New York. We are in decent contact with the Norse and Romans, but we mostly keep to ourselves. I don’t think anyone from camp has spoken with and Celtic demi-gods in a long time–” McHenry rambled, placing down his quill and paper.

“What does it mean–to be unclaimed? And how-how exactly do you know that I’m one of you-a demi-god?” I asked, twiddling my thumbs over the thin blanket spread over my lower body. 

“It means that your godly parent hasn’t claimed you yet, and might in time, but it’s not a guarantee. And I fed you nectar to heal you as you slept. It’s the drink of the gods, just as Ambrosia is the food of the gods, and if you were mortal it would have caused you to explode,” he answered, sitting on a wooden stool in front of the bed. “And Troup brought you here–which is as an indication as any–” he continued. 

“Robert!” I called out hastily. “Is he alright?” I asked, recalling some of the memories of the evening prior. 

“He got a little banged up, but was otherwise unharmed, thanks to your haste recklessness,” he chided. I sighed in relief, placing a hand over my chest as I sat up slowly, my back resting on the backboard of the infirmary bed. “Next time, don’t try and fight a monster when you’ve never been trained! I can’t heal you if you’re dead!” he scolded, before sighing. “I’ll get someone to show you around in a few hours–once you’ve properly rested!”

He stood up, walking out of the infirmary, walking down the path as the door slammed shut, leaving me alone in the white-sheeted infirmary bed to my own devices. 

Chapters: Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2,

Taglist:

@emdabitchass @zariahthewitch @elixs-mythology-corner @perseus-oh-my-perseus 

@ducktamer415 @skrunkly-soaked-rat @hammyham-o-o 

@gay11aliens @sleeplessfluid @frayna-of-the-hollow @poppitron360

[zmasters]

I’d like some help on some world building for a dnd campaign I’m working on.

The general gist is that for most of history, the underdark was at best a myth. For most topsiders, the underdark the various species associated with it didn’t exist and there was no way to get to it. Now, thanks to mysterious earthquakes and a mine digging a little too deep, paths to the fabled underdark was been unearthed, and teams are now exploring this new, mysterious land. I would like some suggestions for things that could be down there and how the people who evolved separately from their above ground cousins for millions of years.

Here’s some ideas I currently have:

The underdark was the last bastion of the now destroyed mindflayer empire, who sealed themselves from the outside world.

This empire was later overthrown in a slave revolt, these slaves being above ground species modified to better suit a specific role in mindflayer society. As such, most sentient underdark life are to some degree psychic.

Most of the “civilized” land is dominated by dark elves, gray dwarves, and deep gnomes nations filling in the power gap. All three nations want to be the dominant power of the underdark, and have fought multiple wars throughout history. The current conflict is at a standstill.

There are also underdark humans and dragonborns (represented by gith and gem dragonborns respectively), but they are primarily nomadic tribes and scattered settlements who live in the higher levels of the underdark. They have less space than the three empires and are less organized, but are generally less hostile to the above ground travelers.

The above ground is known as the Overbright.

The people of the underdark worship there associated gods of the Faerun pantheon (ie Lolth, Laduguer, Callarduran, etc).

Drow live in web-like structures suspended in air and connected to cliffs. They venerate spiders and many adopted spider-like traits over the course of their lives. It’s not unusual to find a drow with eight limbs, multiple eyes or mandibles, or capable of producing webs.

Gray dwarves is a society dominated by necromancers, with most of their frontline soldiers being some variant of undead and their ruler being the most powerful lich. Like most dwarves, they are also accomplished smiths and have access to extensive mines, usually connected to a magma chamber.

Deep gnomes are the most technologically advanced society, having access to automaton and arcane firearms. Through this tech has since spread to the other nations through black market deals and theft, they’ve still at the forefront of weaponry. Cybernetics aren’t unheard of (though still rare).

Gem dragonborns are the smallest population, mostly organized into monastic temples and paladin orders. Their leaders believe that the mindflayers aren’t extinct but are in hiding, and regularly send strike teams to hunt them down as well as do mercenary work for the dark elves, gray dwarves, and deep gnomes.

Gith are psychically aware of the githyanki and githzerai, and wish to unite with them. However, their is a split is which culture they should follow if they should follow either at all. Someone who uses the title of -yanki or -zerai is less indicating their race but more of their political stance. Also the Orpheus plot line from BG3 will be referenced.

Dwarves and gnomes are shorter and stockier than their above ground counterparts due to living in under-underground warrens, while drow are lankier and built better suited for climbing as their cities are built on cliff edges. Gith and gems, due to living in the crust between the underdark proper and the surface, have evolved to life in complex cave systems.

Mushrooms are the main crop and most meat comes from domesticated giant spiders and salamanders. I’m debating making cannibalism socially acceptable in some cultures, but haven’t decided on anything.

None of the species are blind, but sight is generally weaker than their senses of smell and hearing to the point that most can comfortably travel without vision.

No previous description of any species represents all of that species. As well, when I say “drow society”, I mean the nation is ruled by a drow royal family and the majority of it’s free population (the big three nations and some gem dragonborn orders and gith tribes do use slavery to varying degrees).

The campaign itself is more of a dungeon crawl, where the party start above ground explore deeper and deeper into various locations in the underdark. Of course, “dungeon” is a loose term, and it can mean cave, castle or fort, or even a village.

[vh-rp]

Religions of Thedas

RELIGIONS ONSITE Here you can find a list and a little information about some of the religions found in Thedas. Note that some of these religions are race-specific. If there is a religion you'd like to know more about or think should be added, please PM a member of staff.

ANDRASTIAN CHANTRY The most prominent religion in Thedas, Andrastian Chantry is based on the Chant of Light, a series of teachings written by the prophet Andraste, bride of the Maker. To the Chantry, followers of all other religions -- especially non-humans, who they believe have turned from the Maker's grace more than humanity has -- are thought to need saving. The Chantry's goal is to spread the Chant of Light to the four corners of the world, interpretted as such from the Chant of Light. Once all peoples have accepted the Chant and practice its teachings, supposedly the Maker will return to the world and return it to its previous Edenic state.

Followers of the Chantry are Andrastians, and "Chantric" is used to refer to something or someone having to do with Chantry religion. The Chantry calendar is used everywhere in Thedas, save for the Tevinter Imperium. Funeral rites in the Chantry involve cremation, so that demons cannot possess them, and because Andraste was burned at the stake. Chantries are present in nearly every village, town, and city, and in some large organisations such as Circles and Fort Drakon. Some -- including the Chantry in Kirkwall -- maintain a Chanter's Board, a job board for mercenaries and others willing to do good deeds or make money. When not capitalised, the word "chantry" refers to a place of worship, be it a Chantry or not.

Roles Within the Chantry:

Divine: This is the head of the Chantry, and may only be held by someone who is female (whether assigned at birth or they come to the conclusion they're female later). She resides in the Grand Cathedral in Val Royeaux, Orlais. She is addressed as "Most Holy", "Your Perfection". Grand Cleric: This is the role directly under the Divine. This role may also only be held by someone who identifies as female. Each Grand Cleric presides over her own region and represents many Chantries. The Grand Clerics convene at the College of Clerics, located in Val Royeaux, Orlais. Their title is: "Your Grace". Every Grand Cleric has one kingdom that hse presides over. Mother: Mother's are responsible for looking after the spiritual well-being of their flock, and they may be in charge of a Chantry—if this is the case, her title changes to Revered Mother or "Your Reverence". Brothers & Sisters: These people are your lowest ranking members, both male and female identified (non-binary folx too). They are usually fitted into three groups. Affirmed: These people are the regular folx that are serving the Chantry for their own reasons. Clerics: Clerics are your academics, devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. They're in charge of books, relics and lore. Older clerics receive the title "elder" and others are known as "brother" or "sister".

AVVAR GODS It is nearly impossible to speak of the Avvarian people without speaking of their beliefs. Faith is the vibrant cornerstone of their existence, filling their harsh lives with sacred implications, for the Avvars believe as the Alamarri once did: The gods live in all things. Wind from an unexpected direction, birds flying in unusual patterns, a sudden silence amidst the high peaks in the spring—these are nothing but chance to a lowlander, but are messages from the gods to an Avvar.

The Avvars believe without question that their gods have protected them and kept them strong, for do they not thrive despite their numerous enemies? Wise lowlanders avoid pointing out that the hillsmen have been pushed into some of the most inhospitable terrain in all of Thedas. In truth, the Avvars love the Frostbacks and would only take offense at the thought that they were “forced” into the mountains. The Avvars have a complex pantheon, which includes both nature spirits and legendary mortals who have ascended to the heavens. This is further complicated by the fact that the pantheon varies somewhat from hold to hold, as every clan has its own sacred tales and heroes; however, all Avvars agree on the three greatest gods. These are Korth the Mountain Father, Hakkon Wintersbreath, and the Lady of the Skies. Imhar the Clever and the Great Bear Sigfost are also revered in most communities.

The Avvar deem spirits as their gods, treating them as patrons to be lulled and wooed. The Avvar deliberately invoke spirits for strength in battle or solicit them for advice. Such spirits have lived with in their holds for many generations, and sometimes took the form of an animal or departed relatives when they pass on their wisdom. In the event a god is destroyed, the Avvar begin a year-long time of offerings and prayers and rituals. At the end of this period, a new spirit takes on the name and role of the old one.

Avvar believe in a hazily defined afterlife governed by the "Lady of the Skies" where the dead are reunited with their kin. Avvar also believe some of their people are destined to be reborn, i.e., the essence (the soul) returns clothed in new flesh. The core of the concept is thus: the souls of a few Avvar "favored" by fate "migrate" on death to inhabit new bodies destined for them, so they may return and perform great deeds for the good of their hold. These resurrected souls are not expected to remember their past selves consciously, but instead are assumed to be subtly "guided" by their previous experiences, especially through visions and portents.

DWARVEN BELIEFS The dwarves do not have an official religion. They do not believe in gods. Instead, their philosophy promotes excellence, and an almost intimate tie to the rock -- the Stone -- that houses them. They speak of it as if it is alive. They respect, fear, cherish, and give thanks to her for protecting them and providing them with her bounty. Dwarves believe that when they die, they return to the stone and become Ancestors. Criminals, disgraced, surfacers, and their descendants -- the "unworthy" -- are cast out, so that their failings may not weaken the Stone.

Worship and spiritual guidance are reserved for the Ancestors, and above the Ancestors and all others are the dwarves that have been raised to Paragon status for great achievements, whether in combat or something else entirely. Paragons are examples for the dwarves, to be followed and to be revered. In death, it is said the Paragons become one with the densest stone at the base of all mountains -- a foundation upon which all dwarven society rests. These Ancestors communicate their wishes to the living via brutal trials-by-combat called Provings. The Ancestors' collective wisdom is maintained by the Shaperate, which stores its records in lyrium.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Is Chthon a cosmic being?

No, he's an Elder God. Some writers are annoyingly vague and abstract about what that means, but there is a specific definition. I broke it down at greater length here, but the short version is that the Elder Gods are a race of primordial etheric beings that were born from the Earth around the same time that organic life began to emerge. The Elder Gods were sired by the Demiurge, which is the conscious manifestation of Earth's life force. There used to be a lot of them, but then they had a war and a bunch of them died off. Almost every form of magic, divinity, and anything related to mythology on Earth is descended in some way from the Elder Gods, and most of it was created during the course of that war.

So, Chthon is not a "cosmic" being in the sense that he does not belong to the same class or race of beings as, for example, Eternity or the Phoenix. He doesn't live in space and he's not a universal abstract. That doesn't make him less narratively significant, it's just that he's significant to a different-- but equally rich-- facet of the Marvel universe. Earth's history of magic and mythology is incredibly dense, and as the creator of the Darkhold, Chthon's impact can be found everywhere you look.

Within Earth's pantheon of Elder Gods, Chthon is a chaos deity and appears to be connected to the planet's naturally occurring chaos magic, which is an entropic force that requires balance and may be connected to the earliest instances of witchcraft. Chaos is a primordial element, but Chthon is not synonymous with the abstract personifications of chaos that we see in other areas. He is part of a specific history, mythology, and realm of magic. Unfortunately, there is a tendency to conflate him with a something more akin to Lovecraft's Chthulu, which can lead to a lot of misconceptions. Carnage, in particular, was riddled with contradictions that just don't add up against Chthon's larger continuity.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Pabilsag - Day 116

Race: Holy

Arcana: Emperor

Alignment: Light-Law

September 30th, 2024

Jesus, this thing is a Holy being?! I'd expect to see this in my nightmares! However, rather than being nightmare fuel in design, this demon is more of a nightmare for historians than for me; Pabilsag is a rather interesting being in-and-of-itself, but what's even stranger is how hard it is to find much of anything about this obscure Mesopotamian deity. In the already difficult to research world of Mesopotamian mythology, Pabilsag takes some sort of cake in being an incredibly strange figure with nary any sources about it, especially due to centuries worth of conflation of it with a certain, far more popular god in its circle.

For being the purported god of the city of Larak, not a lot remains of Pabilsag or its influence, but to begin with we need to explain how Mesopotamian coloration works. In the primary monograph we have in relation to the study of Mesopotamia, colors actually seem to mean quite a bit- the coloration of something on the monograph can indicate its purpose or its role, which makes it incredibly confusing when Pabilsag's primary depiction, one right next to his wife, doesn't have any color. What makes this even worse is that it's even harder to ascribe much of anything to Pabilsag due to a common conflation between him and Ninurta, an incredibly popular (and important) figure in Mesopotamian mythology. Historically, the two have always been conflated- Pabilsag and Ninurta were and still are commonly associated- but sometimes they were considered even the exact same figure through syncretism, wherein two figures are combined into one.

While, much of the time, Pabilsag is associated with Ninurta, he's shown to be a different being in some respects, at least according to what I've read. While a common interpretation of Pabilsag paints him as the son of Enlil, one of the supreme deities of the pantheon, this may also be a symptom of conflation with Ninurta- or, perhaps, the two were brothers- as Ninurta's father was also Enlil. While Ninurta was associated with and often combined with Pabilsag, the two, again, were shown as different figures with similar traits- its through this that we can probably ascribe roles of being a warrior and healer to Pabilsag as well, as Pabilsag was married to a goddess of healing in Gula, who was also married to Ninurta in some other interpretations. I think, from what I can gather, Pabilsag was a different version of Ninurta, and one exclusive to his people in Larak. It's difficult to say, as I'm not very knowledgeable on this topic (as was probably seen in my Illuyanka analysis lmao), but I'm pretty sure this could be the case.

With that in mind, Pabilsag seemed to have been a warrior god who stood strong and had aspects of healing, much like with his wife. While a similar figure to Ninurta, he was essentially a warrior deity like Ninurta who was exclusive to his specific cult in Larak, at least from what I can figure. In terms of design in SMT... I can't lie, he looks really damn cool, but I'm not sure where his design as a scorpion zombie... thing came from, as most depictions of Pabilsag seem to mostly be those that fit his description as, well, a warrior god. If someone could educate me on why he looks like this, I would happily take it :>

...okay, boom, done. Can someone get this guy out of the room? He's freaking me the hell out! Shit, I left the mic on-

[illegiblewords]

SOME ILLEGIBLE RAMBLES AND REFLECTIONS: A DIVINE CALLING

Continuation of the Dungeons and Dragons cosmology rant I started here, post-Baldur's Gate 3. This is more side-notes with odd bits and bobs I've noticed about Faerûn’s pantheon along with what amounts to a campaign premise.

There are layers, but whether on a realistic ‘human history of polytheism’ front or even compared to other fantasy pantheons—the way gods operate in Dungeons and Dragons is fucking weird.

In a lot of stories, mortal belief shapes the nature of gods. This is partially the case here but not entirely. Sometimes a thing exists or happens, and you just end up with a deity or primordial claiming dominion over that thing. The jurisdiction a god presides over is referred to in Dungeons and Dragons as a 'divine portfolio'. Sometimes gods are born spontaneously out of the aether or by other gods. Sometimes gods quit or die and pass their positions on to others. Mortals can ascend to godhood sure, but that usually takes a fair amount of work along with strategy. Not to mention shit comes with certain caveats.

EX.

Karsus fucked up by using magic to try and replace the goddess of magic. That logistically left him responsible for consciously maintaining the entire Weave when the goddess Mystryl had done it constantly and unconsciously. It wasn’t something he could ever hope to pull off along with his spell. It’s as if Karsus was a top notch marathon runner, but during his hardest race also had to consciously beat his own heart and breathe and send out signals from the brain when that was all previously autonomic. Shit wasn’t gonna work.

What I’ve noticed across lore videos (but also in Baldur’s Gate 3) is, some of the gods are actively acting against their own portfolios and followers on the regular. More than that, divine jurisdictions are a mess and there is just no oversight most of the time.

It’s not even a morality thing for me. It’s not ‘oh Zeus fucked another mortal and Hera went on another rampage’. It's not ‘there’s a stupid beauty contest between the gods and war ensues because no one wants to lose’ either. It’s that the gods of Dungeons and Dragons are mind-blowingly unprofessional about being gods. For many, there is zero accountability for the specific areas they are appointed divinity. It would be like Athena being a goddess of weaving but also an actively shit weaver. Some of what I've seen seems like outright divine malpractice, for lack of another way to put it.

Shar’s portfolio is darkness, forgetfulness, loss, secrets, and night. If it was purely going off of her portfolio and not the goddess who holds it, she’d fit perfectly in terms of coping mechanisms, navigating grief, finding shelter/comfort at night and while concealed, and overall the unknown as something gentle and merciful. People are stated to seek her out specifically for those things, as her portfolio indicates.

Shar is not a trickster-domain goddess, or a goddess of lies, or a goddess of spite and vengeance, or a goddess of treachery, or a goddess of destruction. She adopts those things arbitrarily for herself and wields them through/against her own followers, but they have nothing to do with her actual portfolio. Her actual porfolio is needed, but is being neglected because Shar doesn’t give a shit. She was born as a goddess of those things but she doesn’t bother with them except insofar as they can be exploited for personal gain.

She’s like a grief counselor you go to in your lowest, most vulnerable moment seeking help. There is nowhere else and she’s supposed to be a specialist. Then Dr. Shar tells you 1) kys 2) kill a bunch of other people on your way out.

Again, it’s not even a matter of her being an evil goddess. It’s that she’s an UNPROFESSIONAL evil goddess. Lolth has zero problem because she’s clear about her portfolio and has fucktons of followers who know what she’s about and are on board. Doesn't matter how unhealthy it is, it's eyes wide open. Lolth worked for what she has and runs everything with the Drow seamlessly according to her office. Good for her.

Related, I saw people on twitter getting really angry at the Faerûnian pantheon when Asterion revealed he’d tried to pray to any god he could think of only to be ignored. People were arguing it’s because the gods discriminate against vampires/the undead.

But there are gods of the undead. At least two I know offhand. Orcus namely (although he’s sort of between minor deity and just a straight up demon), as he DOES explicitly work with vampires. (The other god is Vecna, by the by. But he's also evil and mainly focuses on other things + liches.) Orcus is both chaotic evil and a demon. It's worth noting he specifically wound up with his portfolio because he was the only guy remotely qualified for that job regardless of how he felt about it. He doesn’t strictly want to be there but because of how he operates in terms of alignment and abyssal nature he can get away with fickleness. Guy had godhood thrust upon him.

I’d argue he’s the closest to managing Asterion’s jurisdiction so far as undeath is concerned, but Asterion’s alignment and situation are both outside it. Asterion needed a neutral or good deity of the undead, and that role remains unfilled. On a personal level he’d be eligible for ex. Ilmater, but where metaphysical filing was concerned he automatically got rerouted to Orcus who’s doing as little as he can manage on the best of days where divinity is concerned.

It’s not even Orcus’s fault. Again, Orcus didn’t ask for that. Orcus is a terrible person/demon/god and isn’t out for responsibility of any sort. He has never given cause to believe otherwise. Undead ask Orcus for favors or help becoming liches and shit, and sometimes he’s on board. He gave Vecna a hand when he needed it. But it’s on an ‘if I feel like it’ basis for the guy. Taking this openly chaotic evil demon and nominating him to answer the prayers of all undead irrespective of alignment and circumstances is so far outside this dude’s job description it’s insane. You wouldn’t do that to a deity of the living. Hell, even deities of the dead there are like at least four managing different aspects of it at any given time.

And much as I like Jergal, my guy gave his portfolio away to the first three people who asked and let them sort out who got what over a game of knucklebones. He’s in a position that’s a better fit for him personally now and I’m happy for him, but he did not depart from office in the most professional fashion he could have.

(Taking a moment to discuss my understanding of Kelemvor after checking some lore videos, with the disclaimer this is secondhand knowledge. Kelemvor was once a mortal. When he became god of the dead, Kelemvor wanted to ensure non-adherents were treated fairly instead of blanket-punished for not following a god. He tried to make a system that rewarded people who were virtuous but not devout, for example. Except word got out and mortals who had been worshipping deities purely because they wanted a certain afterlife guarantee left in favor of being unaffiliated, which drained those deities of power/resources. Led to a whole tantrum from multiple gods until Kelemvor bowed to divine nepotism saying ‘I’m sorry I was thinking with my mortal brain’. I think he adjusted the system so that non-adherents would be grouped with other non-adherents of similar moral standing, and they’d need to construct their own afterlives together. Which, not bad but holy fuck the fact that other gods banded together and bullied Kelemvor until he changed policy to benefit them again is kind of scary.)

I would argue there needs to be a campaign where disenfranchised mortals come together across alignments and creeds to appoint a divine manager holding gods accountable in some capacity and maintaining professional standards. I was trying to figure out if it was a matter of unions or OSHA or something, but naw man this is actually why managers are needed. It isn’t even HR. It’s someone making sure the workplace functions and that customers aren’t being fucked over/driven away so to speak.

I want to see adventurers convincing the forces of chaos that this is ultimately to their benefit too. I want to see weird alliances/resource pooling. See if Mechanus will lend a hand. Nominate contenders for the position from workplaces across Toril. Do elves have an advantage because they don’t need to sleep? Who is organized enough? How would delegation of responsibilities work—would there be more active involvement from celestials and clergy?

And like, what would a divine manager DO? One example I can think of is that since ex. Shar is an example of supreme nepotism, either:

A. She gets her shit together and addresses her actual portfolio properly in the spirit it was constructed B. She surrenders her portfolio to another deity who can actually address it to either become a demon (more personal freedom but less power) OR adopt the domain that actually reflects what she does instead of false-advertising.

If she wants to be a goddess of spite, theft, destruction, trickery, lies, vengeance, and/or treachery she can be a goddess of those things--but it might lower her divine rank somewhat by connection. If she wants to be ~true to herself~ with a new portfolio that's fine but she's going to make less bank than Selune does and that's something she's going to have to live with.

Shar was promoted beyond her personal capabilities, and while she might still be employable somewhere I don’t think it should be in the same position she’d been fucking up. She misused all of her funds and prayers on interior decoration. She thought seniority meant she was above reproach and she deserves to be held accountable.

A divine manager could see if there’s a need for a particular employment position and start organizing to have that position filled. Ex. If deities of neutral or good undead are needed, that’s a spot where aspiring mortals can apply. And the sorts of tribute a divine manager might get could be hilarious. Imagine sacrifices of caffeine and fantasy office supplies. What symbols/titles would they get?

And you know this deity would get all kinds of bullshit prayers from entitled mortals too. Like a person calling the police because their hamburger was supposed to have large fries on the side but they’re stuck with medium. Sometimes concerns are real but sometimes people abuse the resource. The divine manager needs a will of adamant.

Anyway.

The final detail I’ll mention in this whole ramble is—I think for deities at least, there needs to be some level of reasonable to their portfolios/modus operandi that lets you understand how a regular person would pray to them. Tying to the previous post, if all Bhaalists are Orin then Bhaal just isn’t going to have a whole lot of disciples. Might get a small pocket of serial killers I guess but grand scheme he’s going to be weak as fuck. But if you step back and go ‘Bhaal isn’t a god of sadistic and gratuitous murder, Bhaal is the inevitable death-price of life’ suddenly he makes a whole lot more sense. You get philosophers of Bhaal too, who you can have a perfectly pleasant lunch conversation with. Yeenoghu gets a pass for doubling as a demon lord (akin to Orcus) with power independent of divinity.

[entering--hyperspace]

Dragons, and the influence the Faerûn Pantheon has (or rather, does NOT have) over them. And how it relates to my tav

I've been thinking about how much the gods of dnd actually play a role within bg3, and kinda how having a True Dragon (albeit at first unknowingly) influences the story just a bit because of what he is.

To get started, Dragons have their Own Pantheon, assuming we are not ruling out pre-5e lore entirely. Bahamut and Tiamat are the most well known of course, they are also included in the Faerûn pantheon, so I won't be talking about them too much.

What I'm mostly concerned with are the two defying aspects (Life, Death, and fate) seeing as Withers is very obviously Jergal, and how The Dead Three (along with Vlaakith and Mystra) are all within bg3 in some way.

The Most Influential Dragon god is Asgorath/Io, the originator. He is briefly mentioned by Lae'zel within bg3 in a throwaway line. Known as the Ninefold Drgaon, Asgorath influences the fates of all dragons

There is also Chronepsis, Dragon god of Fate, Death and Judgement. A multi aspected god who may also be known as Null.

Now, to have a Dragon be put into the center of conflict of a story is rare indeed, which is why I like Págos so much. Dragons are often treated as mounts, villains, bosses, or otherwise just out of reach wells of knowledge one party may encounter only to move on with their lives.

It's special in the sense of bg3 because you are dealing with a Lot of Faerŭn gods, but in my canon bc Págos is a dragon none of these gods have Any actual influence over him? Dragons are outside of their jurisdiction unless specifically asked for their help by them. They have no hand to mold their clay, that is for their own gods. This is what makes Págos such an anomaly, because that is essentially what he is in bg3's story...An Anomaly.

Págos is from the ancient past frozen in time and wound up in the present. His fate is guarded by his own gods, leaving the faerûn pantheon to simply watch what is essentially a wild card wander into what could be a world-ending conflict. Withers mentions this, for being a god watching over fate and death, he had no insight into Págos which made dealing with him unsettling at the very least. In my head Elminster also mentions this to Gale as a forewarning about Págos from Mystra, Vlaakith knows this and becomes even angrier not just because of Lae'zel going against her, but because lae'zel is traveling with a companion that makes the entire situation much more dangerous for her, Same with Shar. It is why raphael tried so desperately to get págos into a contract with him. The stakes are higher with a glitch in the system, outside of their control and outside of their influence. Not to say they couldn't hurt him of course, they could they're gods, but its with the knowledge it isn't as simple as smiting someone when a greater power has placed them there, when doing so creates a plethora of problems than it would if págos was simply another mortal. I just think its all very funny. Its also my reasoning why they dont just directly influence him or the game outside of whatever reasoning is already provided.

And also, as a little side note about how ive been having so much fun with him as a character...its kinda like i said before. Dragons in dnd are incredibly powerful, knowledgeable, otherwordly PEOPLE. They are PEOPLE, they are highly intelligent (moreso than the mortal races) and can outlast civilizations...but they are never treated as such, a product of being a game npc. Dragons are regulated to side characterss, npcs, animals, threats, mounts, but never really delving deep into their own personhood. Never the heroes of a story...until now! Thats why I like Págos so much! Because I get to play with How a dragon actually interprets life and emotion differently. I get to delve deeper into lore like this, I get to play with a dragon interacting with others not as this outside influence but as a friend, as their ally. Especially with him being a chromatic dragon its doubly important since chromatics are often just considered evil and are more likely to be treated as animals despite the fact they are just as capable as their metallic counterparts. Anyway I just think its fun! Thanks for coming to my Tav ted talk.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi! First I just wanted to say that I really like your blog and that I’m very happy that you’re talking about this. Secondly, I wanted to talk about something my classmate said that has bothered me for a while. She was talking about how the myth of King Midas was inspired by Mansa Musa, which is…blatantly wrong at best, since Mansa Musa lived around the 1300s and the King Midas myth has been around for much longer than that. She then went on to say that everything about Europe’s culture, including Greek Mythology, is inspired/stolen from African culture. I wanted to know your thoughts on this, because yes, the Greeks do have history in Africa, but calling everything from Greek Mythology “stolen” seems incredibly biased and very offensive towards actual Greeks.

Hello and thank you for the lovely words 🤗

I'm sorry I will be the one to tell you this but I'm afraid your classmate is an Afrocentrist. Afrocentrist rhetoric basically claims that half of history is wrong and that almost everything worthy was done by Black people and that the world wants to hide it because of racism. Classic conspiracy theory.

Now even kind Midas can't stand on his own? They have come for the Middle Eastern figures too? Gosh...

Oh, and of course this is incredibly offensive to other cultures. There are so many disadvantages other countries have, especially if they are weaker or have suffered wars recently, so looking at it only through the lens of race is a great disservice. You don't get a pass to worsen the bigotry someone faces just because you're Black or because you support one of the Black movements. (to be clear, I am not saying Black movements are bad. I am saying this specific one is) As a Twitter user once said:

What your classmates said was just the tip of the iceberg. Many Afrocentrists accuse native Egyptians of kicking the "original" Black Egyptians and colonizing the land thousands of years ago..... Afrocentrists are also often Islamophobic because they correlate the prevalence of Islam in North Africa with another supposed Black expelling from N. Africa.

According to them, most Greek gods are African gods, too, and that Medusa was "Black hair" and that's why the locals called her a monster. Literally none of the above has a historical basis.

Certainly humanity had many common points millions of years ago but it's been so long that what's left behind between distant nations are some faint similarities. I'm sure many Africans would be disturbed if they heard one proclaim that their pantheons and figures are interchangeable with the Greek or Irani/Iraqi ones.