Post by Lev on Aug 14, 2015 22:04:51 GMT
The Divines - Deities of Etirath
Before time was measured by the perishable races, the universe was ruled by ageless powers, formidable and righteous. Those beings, seven in all, long since departed from the mortal realm, were fittingly referred to as the Divines. Each had a hand in developing the known world, their names and influence forever remembered like a birthmark on the land.
Before Den's great dawning, it is assumed by theologians and historians alike that the Divines had no real awareness of themselves. They existed in a fetal state, unified in silent consciousness, nothing more than a mass of thought and spirit floating free and alone in the endless void of chaos. Every name we know today, every power we attest, was yet unformed in this primal age. The Divines were indifferent, the Divines were one, the Divines were happy. Nothing existed for them outside of their own being, leaving this immense, archaic mind to wander carelessly among its own idle fantasies. However, it only takes a single word to break a perfect silence...
One word, the first word, echoed through the endless black: Congeria - what mortals today call the land of Abandon. Its utterance burst forth from Den's lips in a shower of light like dawn on the horizon, illuminating the magnificent discord that had been previously hidden. The illusion of unity was banished by the Day, and the ancient powers - divided so harshly - conceded to the reality of their irrevocable autonomy. No god nor mortal would know the peace of silence again.
Den - Divine Day
The light burst forth from the dark in unrelenting splendor, blinding in its creation. When its brilliance revealed the bounty that was the world, it became The Day
- Excerpt from The Legend of Den
The Break of Day was not regarded as an act of enlightenment by Den’s fellow Divines, but instead as reality’s greatest blunder. They chastised him for his hubris, shaken by the cracks which now lay between their once consolidated beings. Turned away from his own kind, Den instead sought the respect he believed was deserved from creatures of his own design; and so man was created, craft to satisfy the proud light-bearer’s neglected need for worship. As they were born with eyes untainted by Den’s follies, man followed him with undying loyalty. Even to this day he is recognized as the father of life and the beginning of time. He was to be the unchallenged light, warmth, and absolute protector of humanity.
Den’s sacred symbol is the sun, the physical source of his light and life. His animal is the dragon, prideful and fiery, and his plant is the tall, majestic oak.
Sympati - Divine Pity
She watched and wept as man worshiped for naught. Pitiful tears fell for the sun-dried land, and it grew
- Excerpt from Pity's Bounty
Sympati was the first advocate for man. She looked down on the sun-scorched earth the prideful Den horded, and felt compassion for mankind. Her sympathetic tears showered the heat, cooling man’s skin and watering their barren soil. Man rejoiced and prayed for more. Sympati was so moved by their pleas that she bestowed a gift unto them; a source of life that would forever dampen Den’s scorch and feed the earth. She dug out her tear-stained eyes and planted them in the throat of the tallest mountain. From rocky crags an endless river gushed forth, spilling onto the land and filling its chasms. So came the rivers, and from them the seas, and with Sympati’s Well man was able to harvest the bounty of their growing green world.
Sympati’s sacred symbol is a crying eye, a tribute to her gift for man. Her animal is the vodafly, a dutiful emissary whose pitiful song can be heard at night. The weeping willow is her plant.
Milova - Divine Love
And man's gaze was stolen from Den. With eyes no longer skyward, man saw himself and smiled. Man saw his home and fell in love.
-Excerpt from The Mightiest Love
Despite the cornucopia of beauty available to them, man remained infatuated with Den. Rivers filled with fish and forests filled with fauna, but all was unnoticed in the shadow of Den's magnificence. Milova moved to change this travesty, declaring that man's gratefulness shouldn't be hoarded and his passions should be boundless. With outstretched hand she turned man's eyes away from the sun. She blessed them with their first requited love - love of self, others, and all.
Svitani - Divine Call
Man was as wild as the weeds, and his mind as tangled. His idle hands were weak; his idle mind was stupid. But, lo, Svitani came to lead them
- Excerpt from The Herald
Without Den's call to worship, man's body stilled. Stagnancy plagued the land with indifference and lulled life into numbness. The Divines whose hands had molded the static creation did not move, stuck in their prideful poses. While man waited for guidance Svitani descended, armed with her golden trumpet. Man listened to her song and broke from rigor. He cultivated the world, tamed its animals, and built from its plentiful foundations.
Noc - Divine Night
For the first time man's eyes rested. His plow was halted, and his skin was blanketed from the Day. Man was left to rest.
- Excerpt from Search for Slumber
Man labored under Svitani's call until fatigue consumed his form in ash and smoke. This autonomy maddened Den to a covetous fervor, and His anger fueled a burning Day, stinging mortal flesh until it blistered and charred. Infidel blood boiled in a bath of agonized cries. Noc emerged in response. He weaved and twined his form across the sky until it blanketed the land; A swarm of shadowy arms stretched forth to silence Svitani's boisterous horn, and darkness swallowed Den's bright rage. Thus the reprieve of Night was born as man collapsed to rest.
Idvesta - Divine Vengeance
The Day was not good. The Day was not benign. The Day did not deserve its following
-Excerpt from The Rebellion of Day
And as the sky darkened under Noc’s command, the sun began to dim. The brilliant orb, a testament to Den’s great pride, was swallowed in the void of cold and peace that the Divine Night had gently bestowed. But the fire did not vanish; No, what once burned with such arrogant joy had contorted into something venomous. A bitter flame, a cruel flame, still burned in judgment. Idvesta had arrived. The resentful being demanded further action, claiming that Den’s power and influence needed to be usurped entirely. Her war cry fell on the deaf ears of her concrete peers. So a seed of doubt and anger was planted in the impressionable minds of man - Idvesta, the author. A midnight rebellion festered under her leadership, and the army of the Black Sun marched.
Idvesta's sacred symbol is the Black Sun, the blasphemous icon of her war flag. Her animal, the Id; monstrous ancestors of the modern wolf. The searing fern is her plant.
Udel - Divine Destiny
Man, so infinite in faculty, so vast in possibility. Thanks be to Udel! Our dreams be born from the sparkle in her eyes; our fate, her evergiving gift!
-Exerpt from Hymn to Udel
Man needed no longer. Man wanted for not. Everything needed to live and to die in the god-given world had been provided to him. But Udel despised the monotony of the Day, and the emptyness of the Night. Lethargic eyes didn't question their grey world, accepting its perfection as it had been given to them until Udel became their paintbrush. At Night her iridescent form became the palette for their dreams, and a safehouse for their desires. And man had want again.. A reason to live.
Before time was measured by the perishable races, the universe was ruled by ageless powers, formidable and righteous. Those beings, seven in all, long since departed from the mortal realm, were fittingly referred to as the Divines. Each had a hand in developing the known world, their names and influence forever remembered like a birthmark on the land.
Before Den's great dawning, it is assumed by theologians and historians alike that the Divines had no real awareness of themselves. They existed in a fetal state, unified in silent consciousness, nothing more than a mass of thought and spirit floating free and alone in the endless void of chaos. Every name we know today, every power we attest, was yet unformed in this primal age. The Divines were indifferent, the Divines were one, the Divines were happy. Nothing existed for them outside of their own being, leaving this immense, archaic mind to wander carelessly among its own idle fantasies. However, it only takes a single word to break a perfect silence...
One word, the first word, echoed through the endless black: Congeria - what mortals today call the land of Abandon. Its utterance burst forth from Den's lips in a shower of light like dawn on the horizon, illuminating the magnificent discord that had been previously hidden. The illusion of unity was banished by the Day, and the ancient powers - divided so harshly - conceded to the reality of their irrevocable autonomy. No god nor mortal would know the peace of silence again.
Den - Divine Day
The light burst forth from the dark in unrelenting splendor, blinding in its creation. When its brilliance revealed the bounty that was the world, it became The Day
- Excerpt from The Legend of Den
The Break of Day was not regarded as an act of enlightenment by Den’s fellow Divines, but instead as reality’s greatest blunder. They chastised him for his hubris, shaken by the cracks which now lay between their once consolidated beings. Turned away from his own kind, Den instead sought the respect he believed was deserved from creatures of his own design; and so man was created, craft to satisfy the proud light-bearer’s neglected need for worship. As they were born with eyes untainted by Den’s follies, man followed him with undying loyalty. Even to this day he is recognized as the father of life and the beginning of time. He was to be the unchallenged light, warmth, and absolute protector of humanity.
Den’s sacred symbol is the sun, the physical source of his light and life. His animal is the dragon, prideful and fiery, and his plant is the tall, majestic oak.
Sympati - Divine Pity
She watched and wept as man worshiped for naught. Pitiful tears fell for the sun-dried land, and it grew
- Excerpt from Pity's Bounty
Sympati was the first advocate for man. She looked down on the sun-scorched earth the prideful Den horded, and felt compassion for mankind. Her sympathetic tears showered the heat, cooling man’s skin and watering their barren soil. Man rejoiced and prayed for more. Sympati was so moved by their pleas that she bestowed a gift unto them; a source of life that would forever dampen Den’s scorch and feed the earth. She dug out her tear-stained eyes and planted them in the throat of the tallest mountain. From rocky crags an endless river gushed forth, spilling onto the land and filling its chasms. So came the rivers, and from them the seas, and with Sympati’s Well man was able to harvest the bounty of their growing green world.
Sympati’s sacred symbol is a crying eye, a tribute to her gift for man. Her animal is the vodafly, a dutiful emissary whose pitiful song can be heard at night. The weeping willow is her plant.
Milova - Divine Love
And man's gaze was stolen from Den. With eyes no longer skyward, man saw himself and smiled. Man saw his home and fell in love.
-Excerpt from The Mightiest Love
Despite the cornucopia of beauty available to them, man remained infatuated with Den. Rivers filled with fish and forests filled with fauna, but all was unnoticed in the shadow of Den's magnificence. Milova moved to change this travesty, declaring that man's gratefulness shouldn't be hoarded and his passions should be boundless. With outstretched hand she turned man's eyes away from the sun. She blessed them with their first requited love - love of self, others, and all.
Svitani - Divine Call
Man was as wild as the weeds, and his mind as tangled. His idle hands were weak; his idle mind was stupid. But, lo, Svitani came to lead them
- Excerpt from The Herald
Without Den's call to worship, man's body stilled. Stagnancy plagued the land with indifference and lulled life into numbness. The Divines whose hands had molded the static creation did not move, stuck in their prideful poses. While man waited for guidance Svitani descended, armed with her golden trumpet. Man listened to her song and broke from rigor. He cultivated the world, tamed its animals, and built from its plentiful foundations.
Noc - Divine Night
For the first time man's eyes rested. His plow was halted, and his skin was blanketed from the Day. Man was left to rest.
- Excerpt from Search for Slumber
Man labored under Svitani's call until fatigue consumed his form in ash and smoke. This autonomy maddened Den to a covetous fervor, and His anger fueled a burning Day, stinging mortal flesh until it blistered and charred. Infidel blood boiled in a bath of agonized cries. Noc emerged in response. He weaved and twined his form across the sky until it blanketed the land; A swarm of shadowy arms stretched forth to silence Svitani's boisterous horn, and darkness swallowed Den's bright rage. Thus the reprieve of Night was born as man collapsed to rest.
Idvesta - Divine Vengeance
The Day was not good. The Day was not benign. The Day did not deserve its following
-Excerpt from The Rebellion of Day
And as the sky darkened under Noc’s command, the sun began to dim. The brilliant orb, a testament to Den’s great pride, was swallowed in the void of cold and peace that the Divine Night had gently bestowed. But the fire did not vanish; No, what once burned with such arrogant joy had contorted into something venomous. A bitter flame, a cruel flame, still burned in judgment. Idvesta had arrived. The resentful being demanded further action, claiming that Den’s power and influence needed to be usurped entirely. Her war cry fell on the deaf ears of her concrete peers. So a seed of doubt and anger was planted in the impressionable minds of man - Idvesta, the author. A midnight rebellion festered under her leadership, and the army of the Black Sun marched.
Idvesta's sacred symbol is the Black Sun, the blasphemous icon of her war flag. Her animal, the Id; monstrous ancestors of the modern wolf. The searing fern is her plant.
Udel - Divine Destiny
Man, so infinite in faculty, so vast in possibility. Thanks be to Udel! Our dreams be born from the sparkle in her eyes; our fate, her evergiving gift!
-Exerpt from Hymn to Udel
Man needed no longer. Man wanted for not. Everything needed to live and to die in the god-given world had been provided to him. But Udel despised the monotony of the Day, and the emptyness of the Night. Lethargic eyes didn't question their grey world, accepting its perfection as it had been given to them until Udel became their paintbrush. At Night her iridescent form became the palette for their dreams, and a safehouse for their desires. And man had want again.. A reason to live.