In the Golden Age, when the Düréans recreated Geniché's Garden on their isle, rumors of their wealth spawned jealousy and greed amongst many outlanders. The strongest of the barbarians came together, and conspired to build a fleet, and sail to Ürüne Düré, and rob the Düréans of their wealth. The oracles of Düréa dreamed dark visions and learned of this raid, and they turned to their predator goddess, to the great consumer of sacrifice, to Dread Yhera, for deliverance, asking her to show them how to defend themselves from the raiders.
Yhera called the other devouring beasts — first Adjia and Irré — the sun-masked archers, the huntress and the hunter, the javelin-wielding killer of women and the bow-bearing killer of men; then Hathhalla, the Devourer, the goddess of grief and vengeance; and her hunter and animal keeper, her consort Ammon Agdah. And she set them and their Companions to defending the Düréans. The raiders came and many died, stalked by Adjia, Irré, and Agdah, but still they pillaged the Isle of many of its treasures and left triumphant with slaves and booty. Yhera looked down with sadness at the destruction they had wrought, and was filled with the grief of her children. Hathhalla came to her then, and whispered in her ear, and awoke the secret in her heart.
Yhera summoned Ariahavé, her brightest daughter, and bade her make unbreakable chains, and sent her to capture three of the fiercest half-mad daughters of Djara, who were the mothers of the Galéans and called the Gorgonæ. So Ariahavé searched the dark places of Düréa, and found the Gorgonæ hidden in their daughters' shame, and bound them, and brought them to Yhera: Mogran, the Riot Goddess and Queen of Discord; Halé, the Goddess of Rage and Fury; and Médüre, the Cunning One. And Yhera consumed them, chains and all, and then she gave a great cry and she disgorged them from her belly, and Yhera gave bloody birth to War.
Soon the raiders returned, unsatisfied with their first plunder. Yhera unchained the Gorgonæ and they went amongst the Düréans, and taught them the secrets to transform themselves and become warriors, the ways to harness din and discord, rage and cunning. They danced, and drummed, and drank potions, and marked themselves and donned masks, and the Düréans armed themselves to war. And they greeted the raiders with the howls of lions and the speed of serpents, and drove them back across the sea. The Düréans pursued them to the outlands, and slew their families, and freed the slaves they had taken. And when they had returned to Düréa, the Gorgonæ showed them how to purify themselves and take off their masks and stop being warriors, and become themselves again.
So the Gorgonæ were the first goddesses of War and Battle, the goddesses of warrior transformation, who invoked war and ended it, and first made it an art. Yhera held their chains, and became Yhera Anath, the Queen of War and Victory, Dread and Unconquered. Adjia and Irré came and learned from them and Adjia became the initiator, the first to take a child and show them the ways of war, and Irré became Lykeios, the old wolf, the destroyer prayed to by gray-haired veterans. Agdah and his hunting band came too, and they learned to become a warrior band, the Consort-Defender and his companions.
But Ariahavé, the goddess of civilization, had been midwife at the birth of War, and she learned better than them all. She went to her forge, and made skins and scales of metal for the Düréans to wear, and made the first sword, and shared her secrets with Brage. She taught them the arts of forage and supply, so that warriors could go where they wanted when they wanted. She taught the Düréans how to take the dances that they loved so much, and turn them to war and give battle a rhythm: how to make many move as one, and make one part of many, how to make warriors into soldiers. And for all these things Yhera made Ariahavé her general, and gave her the chains of the Gorgonæ for safekeeping.
The Yheran goddesses and gods of war still hold sway where the Old Religion is practiced, supplemented by local gods and heroes. Amongst the Palatians, Ariahavé is held the most dear, with the hero cults of sharp-speared Achre, Archaia the Defender, and Audra the Voyager, Queen of Sails. Ami the Morning Star is invoked as protectress of harbors and ships in war in Palatia, the Déskédran cities, and the Gola. Amongst the Amorans, where the worship of the Sun Bull is still strong, Illiki Helios is revered as the Consort-Defender, following in the footsteps of his father. The Thulamites make sacrifices to Yhera Anath and the Gorgonæ, but hold their ancestress Thula, who stole the secrets of war from the Düréans, above all others. They also follow the hero cults of Dall and Pulma of the Starlight Spears, and Ceram, the Storm King, who initiates their warriors. In some armies Irré is still invoked as the Lykeios, and in some places as the Last Defender, who averts siege and disease and pestilence, and brings them, too.
In Divine King lands — the Thessid-Golan Empire, the Middle Kingdoms, and the great Hemapoline League of Cities — Islik the Divine King is naturally held as the god of war, as war is seen as the prerogative of the King. Divine King knights usually join the orders of a number of hero cults, the most popular being the several orders dedicated to Dauban Hess, the Conqueror King, held as warrior initiator, logistician, and hero of armies. The Daubanite orders sworn to the Phoenix Court are the backbone of the Imperial armies drawn from Thessidia, Galia, and Sekeret, and maintain cordial relations with their brethren in the Middle Kingdoms and the League, even during hostilities. Orders dedicated to Coromat and Jala, two of the other Kings in Exile, have adherents in the Phoenix Court, but not in the Sun Court, where the greatest non-Daubanite order is that of Cewert, the first King to kill a Dragon. Agall, the Hero King, was worshipped and propitiated already as Sacker of Cities before he joined with Islik's cause and became his warrior champion. His order is known for its zeal in battle and in pursuit of Agall's old enemy, the Witch. The Agallite order is small but powerful; it has adherents primarily in the Middle Kingdoms and to some extent in the League, but oddly is not popular in Galia, the land of his descendents.The Imperial armies have any number of hero-cults outside the Divine King orders amongst its diverse soldiery; notable amongst them are Myrcalion, the hero wanderer, called the greatest hero that ever lived, whose cult is popular in Thessidia and Galia; Vani, worshipped as both the vulture-headed earth-shaker and as the eagle-headed warrior-ancestor of the mountain princes of Vanimoria; Hammarat the Night Fire, the Defender King popular amongst the Metics; Ceram, invoked by the Ceraic tribes who have sworn to the Empire; and Illiki Helios, still worshipped by some soldiers from Galia and the Gola, though his invocation is frowned on by the Phoenix Court. The Isliklids and their Düméghal warriors are said to invoke Irré as their chief war god, as the Wolf and the Locust, the wilderness at war, and they are said to make bloody offerings to him despite the Divine King ban on sacrifice, but other rumors claim they hold no gods of war but themselves.
