Worship In Eden: The Greater Spirits II

Continuing from the last article, we have the remaining 4 greater Spirits, and their purviews, appearances and special followers, and some of their history. Though the Nine have a great bulk of mythology among them it is almost exclusively known only to their most devoted followers. Though there is a body of common lore, some things, such as the powers of their special followers, require just a bit more research to understand. Only Arclinne’s followers allow just anybody to learn the entirety of the lore surrounding her – to other devotees, particularly those of less charitable deities, one must be indoctrinated and accept one deity above all others before being allowed to experience all the body of knowledge held by those devotees on their deity and its various aspects.

This does not stop them from worshiping multiple deities or stop others from learning many of these stories, however. In Eden, prayer is always cast to many – and knowledge is always seeking to be found.

Orvial
Purview: Air, Games, Beauty, Envy
Titles: The Laughing One, The Spring Breeze, The God/Goddess, The Gorgeous Caress.
Appearance: Orvial is depicted as a flat-chested, but typical Athirua – indigo-skinned, blonde-haired with red eyes and incredible beauty, with a feminine face but no distinguishing features of either the male or female sex. Often depicted in the nude or very lightly dressed, and often partaking in some dance or stunt.
Special Follower: Androgyne. This kind of cleric must have already been somewhat androgynous to begin with – while certain races in Adel are predisposed to looking more effeminate (such as the Dromidae or Athirua), an Androgyne must have been born looking between the two sexes. However, after being invested with the power of God/Goddess, the cleric’s body becomes even more significantly difficult to pin as any one gender, even resulting in infertility (though not impotence). Orvial gifts clerics with a strong glamour that allows them to attract and influence others. Like most of the God/Goddess’ gifts, it is given so that it might be used in excess, and most Androgynes tend to have a pile of lovers of all races and sexes, attracted, regardless of their inclination, to this strange and wonderful person. As such, they tend to be volatile social elements and Adelians in the know of them and their powers are always wary of what they might be up to.

Orvial is a strange deity, both God and Goddess and neither. He/She is the patron/matron of the Athirua, as well as God/Goddess of the sexually open. Orvial is also prayed to in physical activities and games, that his/her wit and cunning may be passed on to the one praying. Orvial is an elemental deity of Air, and is ephemeral, subtle and graceful as the breeze. Being the patron/matron of the Athirua, he/she is also a deity of Beauty, and is prayed to in preparation for social functions, that his/her beauty might radiate from the one praying, that his/her face shine over one’s own. He/she is one of the least actively worshiped deities, but gains power passively through his/her purviews.

Kaehma
Purview: Stagnation, Death, History, Magic
Titles: The Mold Mother, The Creeping Plague, The Necronomicon, The Chill of Death
Appearance: Kaehma is depicted as a young woman with blue-ish gray skin, with various lacerations upon her skin as though wounds never healed. Her face has a dead, sterile beauty to it, while her thin body has green patches over it, and sometimes a few yellow scabs or even mushrooms growing out of her. Her hair is parts gray and parts white, stretching down to the shoulder, with a few mushroom caps growing out of it. One of her eyes is blue and white, blinded by disease. Her breath is always visible, regardless of where she is depicted being, as though she were very cold.
Special Follower: Nihilim. Someone who has attempted suicide and failed can become a Nihilim. As the cleric is invested, the wound from the suicide attempt, regardless of how long ago the attempt had happened, becomes visible and agonizing to the cleric. Nihilim bleed out from the wounds and enter a death-like state. Some time later, the cleric recovers, pale-skinned, with shadows under the eyes. A Nihilim’s passions are dulled (though they can still love and lust if prompted by an external circumstance, such as a lover’s declaration) and they tend to languish. But Nihilim have a variety of incredible powers, including being able to read tomes very quickly (if pressed by another, as they will not likely have the motivation to do it themselves) and possess a photographic memory. Their essence is magnified and their sense of pain is dulled. However, they tend to require the care of someone, because they become almost patently unable of finding significance in themselves, and will allow themselves to go unwashed and unfed until death takes them. Nihilim are also the only special cleric followers who near totally lose the ability to sing hymns – instead, they have more of an affinity to arcane magic. Their hymn singing is still functional but it is very mediocre and suitable only to the lowest of hymns.

Kaehma is the grim reaper of the Adelians, goddess of death. She is also goddess of entropy, and the inevitable stagnation and decay of all creatures and concepts. She is prayed to for the quick death of someone agonizingly sick or injured. She is the goddess of magic and history, one who has stood since the beginning, watching over the shoulder of every being until the time of their death, recording everything with her eyes. As such she is prayed to by magical scholars for knowledge beyond their grasp, for the key fact missing from a perfect formula, for the one discovery that might elude a scholar. She is one of the few goddesses who’s name is used in oaths and curses, and in insults, particularly towards the lazy or uneventful. She has a curious relationship with necromancers. She isn’t a Goddess of Necromancy, and indeed it would seem against her purview to allow people to continue existing beyond the pale of a true death. However, she is worshiped nonetheless by Necromancers for her ties to magic, prayed to for the furthering of their dark craft. Kaehma is one of the goddesses most quickly recognized by Dromidae, who as a primarily magical race can understand why worshiping her would be beneficial.

Paikar
Purview: Fertility, Nature, Life, Children
Titles: The Mother Land, The Child-Bringer, The All-Blossoming, The Verdant Lady
Appearance: Paikar is generally depicted as a tall, brown-skinned woman, often nude, but if clothed then in floral garb, with short red hair and green eyes. Her robe, when she has one at all, is depicted as both being made of cloth-like material and leaves and flowers. Her arms turn to wings below the elbow, with feathers all the colors of the rainbow, and she has the tail of a bird of paradise, each feather representing a rainbow color.
Special Follower: Druid. A Druid is blessed at investiture with a deep connection to fertility and nature. A Druid is better adept at making the soil fertile with song or bringing back damaged flora from the brink of death. Druids make incredible midwives, able to greatly ease the pain and burden on a mother delivering child, with just a touch on the belly, as well as being able to bless couples who wish for children and concoct products to aid them. They are also adept at countering those things which are the purview of Kaehma, being able to cleanse illness from food and drink, and concoct natural remedies that can help heal the body. Druids cannot directly speak to beasts, but they are better at communicating with them nonetheless than a normal person would be.

Paikar is the goddess of nature and primarily worshiped as a Goddess of Life. She is prayed to by couples wishing for children, and then to safeguard those children from harm. She is the goddess of life, and prayed to by all Clerics as they attempt to save a life that can be saved (if it cannot, then it is Kaehma’s domain to end the suffering). She is worshiped by an expectant mother with a full belly, so that the pregnancy be as safe and painless as possible. She is not just a goddess of reproductive fertility, but in her role as Nature, she is prayed to by farmers so their soil will be fertile, and by fishermen so that the waters will have a great bounty to give them.  She is one of the most actively worshiped and important deities in Adel. She is sometimes said to be a twin aspect of Kaehma, or perhaps, a strange alter ego of Kaehma, a living entity extant at the same time as the dead one.

Trudgar
Purview: Earth, Law, Honor, Tradition
Titles: The Stalwart Stone, The Gaunt Watcher, The Mountain Father
Appearance: Trudgar is depicted tall as three dwarves while maintaining the appearance of one. He is large, stock and stout, with a full and ancient beard part graying, part white and part black. His skin is the color of mountain stone, and he wears a full suit of armor incorporating every metal and precious stone known to the Adelians. Unsmiling, Trudgar is always watching through jeweled eyes, with a hammer of raw golden and silver ore. When he stands still, it is said, he seems like a living monument, crafted perhaps by some of the other deities, or perhaps by the thousand ancestors revered alongside him.
Special Follower: Forgepriest. Trudgar’s blessing is to those clerics who are adept with their hands, be they dwarves or not, and he gives them the knowledge of a thousand dwarven elders upon investiture. This ability allows them to forge magical items, slowly and deliberately. Weapons and armor crafted by Forgepriests are said to be items of legend, though only if the Forgepriest is working with the rarest and most quality materials, and with blessed fires, can truly legendary items be made. A forgepriest works best with things once buried, with ores and stones. Their craft does not extend as well to cloth or to wood, though they can work with these at the level of a mundane expert.

Trudgar is primarily worshiped by dwarves, though other Adelians of course recognize what he means as a deity. Trudgar is the god of Laws, who with his hammer etched upon a slab of stone the very first codes of law followed by mortals, which Dwarves are said to hold to this day. He is the god of honor and tradition, and in a sense also of duty, prayed to by those who wish to stick by their friends, family or lover but are being swept another way by some calamity. He is the God of the Earth, and of rocks and steel, of forges, and is therefore prayed to by miners and craftsmen, that his hammer be their own as they strike earth and ore to produce for themselves, their families and others. He is the god of ancestry as well, prayed as a lost loved one is remembered and honored. The dwarves, particularly, revere “a thousand ancestors” said to be the “first generation” of Dwarves who survived the Cataclysm and then re-established Dwarven society to its current majesty.