Religion on the River

Sothark Traditional - The Winter Gods

Sotharks worship a fairly unique pantheon known as the Winter Gods. This pantheon is comprised of:

Father Sky, a partriarchial Father Deity who is generally apathetic towards mortals

Winter Woman, both daughter and frequent involuntary mate to Father Sky

Winter Wind, their eldest son

Winter Storm, their middle son

The Killing Frost, their youngest son

Traditionalist Sotharks do not so much worship these deity figures as they do respect, fear, and pay grudging superstitious homage to them. Father Sky is known to be an abusive husband who goes on prodigious drunken rampages, beats and rapes any woman he fancies, but who takes pride in strong, brave,courageous sons. Winter Woman is long suffering, coldly patient, and scheming; much Sothark mythology revolves around her cruel and elaborate schemes for revenge on Father Sky and evil mortal males. Winter Wind is a strong, powerful hunter and warrior who protects his mother and is a staunch defender of his friends and brothers. Winter Storm is a fickle fighter, undependable and treacherous, who shows no lasting loyalty to anyone, but whose wrath is terrible. The Killing Frost, their youngest brother, is a cunning, malevolent plotter who strikes without warning and whose sudden touch brings instant death to all living things.

Father Sky is patron deity of strong, aggressive males, especially tribal leaders, as well as all natural creatures that dwell beneath the winter sky.

Winter Woman is the patron of all Sothark females, and is the especial patron of the traditional Sothark shaman class, the winter women, who pass along all Sothark folklore, myth, and tradition by rote memory and who wield great if subtle influence over traditional Sothark tribes and clans. The only males whom she regards with any affection are protective husbands, good sons, or infants.

Winter Wind is the patron deity of warriors, husbands, and hunters. He despises weaklings, cowards, cheaters, and schemers.

Winter Storm is fickle, dark, and capricious. No one’s patron, but any wise Sothark will ask the winter woman to make an offering to him before embarking on any lengthy journey.

The Killing Frost is a dark, malevolent deity, a patron of those who would win battles through unfair means and destroy their enemies through treachery and unnatural powers.

Durshi/Northark Traditional - The Nurr’yk Pantheon / The "Old Religion"

Both traditional Durshi and traditional Northark worship an ancient pantheon known as the Nurr’yk Gods. Although there areminor dialectical variations in names, the gods worshipped are the same for both people. As there are nearly 100 major and minor deities, a complete list will not be supplied here. Durshi and Northarks families tend to take one deity in particular as their specific patron, but all the gods are worshipped and at various holy days, given offerings.

Some of the more prominent Nurr’yk deities are:

Durshi / Northark

Woda / V’odo, the High Father, Chief of theGods

Vakashta / V’kasha, God of Storms and Battle

Mirriti / Maroota, Goddess of Fire

Marvuta / M’Ravta, God of Death and Destruction

Vultara / V’tarek, God of Wisdom and Knowledge

Loka / L’uko, God of Chaos and Trickery

Arshina / H’rrshenar, the Great Bear God / the God of Apes

Gadura / G’uhdori, God of Rats, Plague, and Famine

Paravani / Parvanna, Goddess of Pain and Suffering

Worshippers of the One True God through Its earthly avatar, Miriam Orishna, who came to the world as a mortal woman and was put to death by Priests of the Samaqel as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity, to re-open the paths of Hell and allow mortals to once more reach Heaven. A very worldly and controlling Church which dominated the very fertile midlands of the River for several decades, until it fell victim to a curse and was overwhelmed by darkness and damnation brought on by its own corruption. Now the former Holy Lands reside under eternal night and are the domain of the Noble Bloodlines of the Shadowlands, and the elaborate rituals of this once mighty religion are celebrated only by scattered, small communities of True Believers and a small population of Sotharks led by Utgar Bearfang, whose elder brother, Rugar, once agreed to convert his sizeable group of tribesmen and followers to the Faith in exchange for weaponry and troops from the Church.

A one time warrior for the Holy Church, Baldwin Blood-of-Saints rose high in the ranks of the so-called ‘Church Hawks’... and was sickened by the worldly corruption he saw everywhere in the Church. Diversion of Church tithes to the purses of individual Cardinals, the selling of indulgences, casual vow-breaking, and the establishment of Jeopard slavery all sickened him, to the point where, upon successfully taking the city of Ulvalor from the Giants, he renamed it Miria and declared it an independent city-state where he founded the Reformed Church of the One True God. Stripped of elaborate ritual, the Reformed Church is a zealously puritanical and evangelical religion determined to spread the fundamental truth of the Gospel of Miriam Orishna to every living soul on the River. Led by the fanatical Holy King Baldwin I, the zealous Armies of Miria have retaken and rebuilt the cities of the formerly Abandoned Lands, renaming them and filling them with pilgrims. The new Holy Lands have risen in the region formerly known as Aha’Taqel ("the Lands of theWolf").

Long a popular but secretive alternative to worshipping the Samaqel on the River, there are many different established cults that worship Necros, God of Death, Prince of Worms, the Rider. Founded usually to seek protection from the whims and wrath of the great Jhareesh who created the Ancient Lands, these differering sects of death are often at each other’s throats.

Among the most prominent of the various Death worshippers:

The Black Giants: a racial minority among Giants, the Blacks rule the more numerous Grey Giants with an iron fist. Relatively recently, it became known on the River that the Black Giants worshipped Death, and that once they reach a certain age, they are converted into Undead as a sort of rite of passage into their full power and posterity. Grey Giants are also brought up in the traditional religion, but it is rare that a Grey is accorded the great stature of becoming Undead. However, Greys are often given the privilege of ritual sacrifice.

Deaths Heads: A nefarious cult of mostly human Death worshippers who dwell primarily in the borders between the human river valley and the Giant Mountains. Over the millennia this group has evolved many of its own peculiar rituals, ceremonies and beliefs, including the kidnapping of infants and young children for sacrifice followed by ritual cannibalism, and the raising of the bodies of their enemies as vorinkalla slaves. Deaths Heads do not believe in living on themselves in Undead form, but strike pacts with Death for extended mortal life, high status in Hell after their deaths, or reincarnation into new lives of wealth and influence, which they agree to use for the benefit of their particular cult of Death.

The Altar of Blood : Originating in the Empire of Man, this particular subsect of Death worship came to the River with the Imperial invasion forces and remained behind after their defeat and evacuation, taking and holding the Riverish city of Riva Zand. For nearly a decade, Riva Zand was known as a dark and evil city-state, filled with Imperial Death Priests and legions of undead warriors. The heroes Lyanna Morningstar and Calypso Skullsmasher managed to destroy nearly all the Death worshippers within this city in 3019, and the few remaining remnants of the Altar of Blood fled to Sottli Ban, where the only publicly known Temple of Death now stands.

The Noble Bloodlines of the Shadowlands: rulers of the eternally benighted Unholy Lands, these Undead Lords were formerly high Cardinals, Bishops, and other princes of the Holy Church of the One True God. Afflicted by the curse of the nosferatu, they are now eternally damned to be bloodsucking Undead who view the living mortals of the River as little more than wild cattle waiting to be domesticated.

These are simply some of the more well known Death worshippers on the River. There are other, more secret, cults as well. Regarded as antisocial and undesirable even by the amoral and violent standards of the River, death worship is something that generally must be done covertly, even when it is not actually illegal (as it is in the Realm of Ona-Tengu and the new Holy Lands).