Post by Leokrates on Aug 16, 2012 22:41:39 GMT -5
RELIGION[/font]
The tribes have a unique polytheistic religious system. Now, faith and religion are different: faith is a personal, spiritual belief and religion is the institution of a spiritual belief. This is the institution, though it is not an institution as some may know it.Note: Written as truth from here on
There are many, many gods, minor and major, as well as spirits of the forest, animals, and so forth. Oftentimes, people have a "spirit animal", or a creature with which they identify; if so, a priest will tell the person. Priests must be asked for this, though, unless he or she finds it an absolute necessity to tell the person. Now, people have been eaten by their spirit animals or so forth, so it is obvious that either the priest made a mistake or that person was not spiritual and was a traitor to him- or herself, thus causing his or her own creature to feast.
The religion has no formal name, though the Alithrans might call it the "barbaric tradition" or something of the sort, and the tribes only know it as their religion, with no true word for it in their language. It does not have a name because it just is and it is everything; it is a very nature-based tradition with the idea that there are gods in all things and that gods are essentially beings of life while humans are beings of both life and death.
Gods can control weather and fortune, with each assigned his or her own specific realm to oversee. They have a variety of different appearances and can choose to show up in one form or another, depending on their purpose; this makes signs much easier to understand for humans. Humans have free will, but it was never really considered that gods might control all things about humans. Life is a mixture of overarching events, which are fated, and little things that are left up to chance.
Priests can be male or female and dedicated to one god or all, depending on how they wish to devote themselves. They may marry and have children, as well, for the gods are gods of life, and life loves the continuation of life. Priests have knowledge of the plants and animals in the area, of what is a cure and what is a poison, and what can give the most dreadful rash.
Human sacrifice used to be part of the tradition, but there were outcries and reforms a couple of centuries back, and now human sacrifice is taboo, though willingly giving blood to a shrine can grant blessings to the one who made the offering. Animal sacrifices are common, as well as "elemental mixing", using the earth, water, fire, plants, and stones together in rituals, to gain a god's attention or favor. Also, these can aid healing or fortune.
Gods pick favorites among mortals, and that is simply the way it is. If a person is devoted and loyal, spiritual, then that person is more likely to receive many blessings from a god who favors him or her.
There are many, many myths, many of which contradict each other, though they are, fortunately, not taken for complete truth but rather as fables meant to tell lore of the tribe, as each tribe has at least a few unique stories, and are seen both as a moral guide and a source of entertainment. In the stories, sometimes gods die or mortals and gods fight against each other or together, but is generally accepted that gods cannot ever fully die.
THE GODS
If you want to create a god for this pantheon, or a creature in this mystical forest, feel free to PM an admin your idea so that it can be approved and added or sent back with suggested corrections. The list of these is far too long to have in a single post, of course (and Rabid's mind has not created them all...), so know that you, the RPer, have this in your power, somewhat.
Examples of creatures:
Fae (including wood sprites and water sprites; "fae" is both singular and plural; they are not sparkly and not usually very tiny, but even can grow to the size of a full human, but they are clever and mischievous)
Shadow Hound (a massive dog or wolf made of shadows and darkness that preys on fears)
Banshee (a woman who is never seen but screams loudly for a person when somebody they love has just died, is about to die, or is in danger of dying)
Note: Roles (such as war god) appear many times in many different gods, as do animal appearances and affiliations, but no two deities are exactly the same.
Brudacc - the male chieftain, displayed both as an older middle aged man and a handsome young man, always bare chested and covered with blue warpaint and wild hair; he is the god of the skies and weather, without which all life would surely die; his animal is the hawk
Si Debh - pronounced "shee deev"; the female chieftain and wife of Brudacc, though equally powerful, shown either as a matron type woman or a young and wild warrior, bare chested and covered in blue warpaint; she is the god of the earth and soil, from which all life truly comes; her animal is the deer
(The) Morrigan: - a mysterious being who seems to be from another world entirely; takes the form of three women, a beautiful young maid, a clever matron, and a wise old crone or the form of three sisters or all alone as a single powerful being; sometimes mistakenly believed to be highly malicious by outsiders since she is often a sign of misfortune and danger and because she is a powerful war goddess who delights in battle and killing; her animal is a crow or a wolf
Aelfyll - first son of Brudacc and Si Debh, shown as a strong young man with red hair and blue eyes; he is a god of waters of all sorts, and the Ulylla River actually was named after him (the Alithrans got the name from the natives); his personality shifts greatly, and he can be calm and nurturing or supremely wrathful and vengeful; his animal is the swan
Lyrriobh - (the "bh" sounds like a "v") the first daughter of Si Debh and Brudacc, a goddess of justice, vengeance, crime, and mercy; she is golden haired and dark eyed, and very tall; her personality varies and can be either understanding and sympathetic to completely hateful and vengeful, as her realm suggests, though she can show a mix of these with wisdom, and she acts as a guide to those who thirst for consequences, and what she represents are considered to be a force of nature due to her being part of the original family of gods; her animal is the falcon
Haggan - a war god, favored by Ylarm; he is shown as a massive man, either bare chested or nude with a torque, and covered in blood with a huge tangle of black hair and a braided black beard and eyes equally dark; his personality is ruthless, ambitious, and bloodthirsty, with a keen taste for a challenge, though he is, in some myths, tricked and killed because of his love for his blood kin; his animals are the crow and the wolf
Pwyrll - a sexless god of human fertility that has the image both of a woman and a man, a mother and a father; generally keeps out of affairs of mortals and simply is there to grant new human life to the people, and outsiders sometimes are surprised by the fact that Pwyrll does not get involved in actual human affairs; her (or his, whichever pronoun is preferred) animals are the snake and the cow
And more!
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