Religion and Deities
Religion and Deities
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Religion in Norelva is based on animistic ideas and a small acorporeal pantheon. On the grand scale, four major formless concepts make up the major gods, giving life to the most basic ideas of the universe. On a smaller scale, common concepts such as nature and knowledge may have a specific god, however, they are likely to be enshrined in specific spirits and gods. For example, the god of swords, or the god of writing.
This makes local folklore extremely powerful: the prayer of townfolk to protect their village is enough to create a god, albeit very weak, in order to protect it and enact their wishes. This manifests in an endless amount of small, local gods, from gods of specific mountains, waterfalls, lakes, forests, and down to gods of a family, a sword or a pen. Depending on the circumstances, the believers and the thing to be believed in, the specifics vary wildly. This is a double edged sword, however, as monsters and horror stories often manifest in real, physical forms.
◾ "Take care not to let the shadows of the night stir fearful thoughts, for if enough believe in a horror, then so may the Gardener give it shape."
― The Grimoire of Golden Grace, a holy book dedicated to the Gardener
The Cosmic Trinity
The Cosmic Trinity
The major deities of the universe are not deities at all. Instead, they are manifestations of four major aspects of existence. All four, aside from the Arbiter, have no established or known physical manifestations and are instead formless ideas made flesh. Note that it is generally called a Trinity, as the fourth, the Arbiter, is commonly placed outside or further from the first three. These are:
The Gardener,
The Winnower,
The Flame,
The Gardener represents life, creation and light. It is the force that creates new things, symbolized in births, new inventions and the coming of the light, often associated with sunrise. Its symbols are usually soft shapes like arcs and circles, and the color gold. Its counterpart is the Winnower, the force of destruction and death, ending as opposed to the Gardener's beginning, sunset to sunrise; it's usually symbolized by jagged shapes and opaque black or purple. It is important to note that neither are malicious or inherently evil: there cannot be infinite creation, as that leads to overpopulation, overconsumption, excess and waste, chaos, and there cannot be infinite destruction, as that leads to, eventually, a point at which creation cannot catch up.
These two concepts are self-regulating, but a third force exists to maintain watch over the balance: the Arbiter. The Arbiter inhabits a pocket of the cosmos, keeping watch over the balance between the Gardener and the Winnover. Its servants, non-euclidean mechanical beings named Custodians, roam the universe acting as its eyes and intervening where required, even to stop actions perpetrated by mortals - though sightings of Custodians are only told in legend. Its counterpart is the Flame, an ever consuming force that represents the opposite of what the Arbiter maintains: chaos, entropy and instability. The Flame, manifested in unquenchable red fire, aims to simply destroy the balance and order and set the universe to complete anarchy.
Other Gods
Other Gods
The process of creation for a god relies vastly on belief. Gods are created when enough people worship or pray to a specific concept, and the majority of deities are small spirits. Some, however, are worshipped enough to gain a significant amount of power.
The worship of nature is by far the vastest, typically divided into land, sea and air. This trinity is enshrined in three worm-like creatures, named Erd, Luf and Mer, or Earth Serpent, Winged Serpent and Serpent of the Deep. These Worm gods appear with features of their domain: the Earth Serpent has rocky, tough skin and a sharp needle as a head to pierce the terrain so cleanly that it doesn't damage or kill the flora and fauna; the Winged Serpent is an amphiptere-adjacent creature, a feathered snake with enormous wings and a tri-pointed beak; the Serpent of the Deep is a sleek, scaled eel-like worm with an infinitely expanding mouth lined with a thousand teeth.
What the Worm gods may appear as to a mortal.
Other gods include:
Esser, the god of the forge and, most recently, of engineering and technological development, usually symbolized by a gear and taking the form of a mechanical being resembling the closest piece of technology.
Sverid, the god of war and combat, inherently linked to the chaos of the Flame, symbolized by swords and weapons and taking the form of a faceless soldier donned in the uniform most appropriate by the time period and faction.
Liebe, the deity of love and fertility, symbolized by red and knots, taking the form of whatever is most appealing or dear to the recipient of the visit.
Kergora, the goddess of harvest and agriculture, symbolized by farm tools and bread, taking the form of an animal or scarecrow.
Allois, the god of wisdom and knowledge, symbolized by eyes and pens and taking form in paintings and text.
Merpat, the goddess of commerce and trade, symbolized by soft gold and hands, who takes the form of a dull gold humanoid.
Planes of Existence
Planes of Existence
The world in which Norelva exists is a real, tangible planet in a real solar system, however, it is considered the neutral plane. Along it are three other planes, typically stylized as different layers of the underground or the atmosphere.
The Ashen Waste
The Ashen Waste
The Ashen Waste, the plane of Flame, is an infinite desert that presumably exists in the planet's core, an island drifting in a sea of magma where the chaos of the Flame burns brightest. A vast plain stretches across the horizon, broken up by rivers of lava, where typically, bringers of chaos are brought or born. These include conquerors and destroyers, shunned generals, serial killers, and from the chaos that inhabits the plane, demons and devils are born. There are sporadic settlements or castles, places where deeds deemed untouchable by the other planes took place. There is no ruler or king, as anarchy reigns supreme, but myths tell of a few who harnessed the Flame for their own means. Legends say that one day, the Ashen Waste will catch fire and melt the world away.
The Scaduforest
The Scaduforest
The Scaduforest, the plane of the Winnower, is the destination for all that is destroyed or killed. An endless forest lit by gentle light and littered with headstones, marked by a path with no end, it is considered an honorable place for many after death. As opposed to hell or the afterlife commonly conceived, this cemetery is not malevolent or evil, instead serving as a resting ground where those who passed away can live out eternity in peace and harmony. Sporadic pockets of civilizations exist, isolated hand-built homes and even taverns where the spirits of deceased live through their past life. This is the birthplace of darker, sometimes malevolent creatures, as the negative emotions that pool in this dimension are enough to fuel their creation despite the plane's nature. It is said that a hooded figure cast in flowing shadow roams the lands to grant mercy upon those who died in pain or unjustly.
The Spire of Gold
The Spire of Gold
The Spire of Gold, the plane of the Gardener, inhabits the skies above the planet, presumably somewhere in the outer atmosphere, unreachable by mortals. It is a castle erected on a cloud that reaches into space further than one can see. Bathed in golden light, it is where all is conceived and descends into the neutral plane. As opposed to the Scaduforest, the Grace of Gold is a frenetic, ever moving machine, due to the inherent excitement and passion of invention. Inhabited by incorporeal angelic beings and celestial artificers - impossibly large golems tasked with endless creation - it is not the destination for the afterlife aside from a few who were made saints by their intellect or passion. Legends tell of a faceless female figure that sits in the heart of the castle.
Other gods, less powerful ones, have the ability to inhabit their own planes, small domains that can range from the size of a room to an island. They are isolated and cannot be seen by mortals unless invited inside by the deity.
The Birth of the Universe
The Birth of the Universe
The history of the birth of the universe is still debated among scholars, but the most prevalent theory is that of the Rupture, a Big Bang-like event that caused the creation of the universe. Theories state that before the Gardener, the Winnower and the Flame, a single infinitely powerful god existed, inhabiting the void. Its death, accidental, natural or deliberate it may be, caused the stars and planets to form from its body, and the three concepts of life, death and chaos to rouse the other two to sprout from the heart of the god.
This theory is supported by the Rupture itself, a well-studied stellar phenomenon visible in the night sky shaped like a three-pointed star, a rip in the darkness of space that shines in golden light with streaks of black and purple. Other cosmic sightings include blood-red nebulae that appear to the untrained eye as streaks of blood, and the Iris, a black hole that resembles a swollen eye remarkably. It is generally agreed that these are coincidences, and that the idea of the god's actual body parts occupying the known universe is unproven.
The Arbiter's origins are not well known, but theories posit that it was created by a future civilization and sent to the past to watch over the universe, or it simply created itself on its own volition to maintain that duty; alternatively, it is theorized that it is a hidden part of the trinity, the god's desire for balance above all else which survived the split between life, death and chaos. Most, however, tend to presume that its birth was a reaction to the Flame's spread.
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