Anrelian Pantheon

The Anrel Isles has a rich polytheistic philosophy that sees the world as inhabited by many gods and willful spirits. They view all world religions as valid, but believe gods are tied to certain lands and places. Deities can therefore have separate or even conflicting mythologies, but these are accepted because they are the story of that particular deity. Gods, being non-human, can be capricious and irrational, and their followers adopt a pragmatic attitude to worship. Prayer and offerings are a transactional exchange for help and guidance.

Though the people of Anrelplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigAnrel Isles

Anrel [ANN-rel], or the Anrel Isles, is the most northerly island group in the Natorn Archipelago. It consists of three major islands and numerous smaller ones. The largest, colloquially if infrequently called Mainland, is divided between the kingdoms of Trésard and Narette. The island believe in the existence of many gods, most people only revere and worship a limited subset of deities according to preference or local culture. All share the common belief that humanity is descended from the Godmen, birthed by the hermaphroditic progenitor deity known as The One. This belief is very similar to the beliefs of the ancient Miyarrain, and it is unclear whether Anrelian beliefs derived from Miyarris, or vice versa.

Faith in Anrel is a personal practice, a contract between an individual and a god. Individuals dedicate periods of service and worship to a particular deity, in return for the god's aid and protection.

Worship of particular gods varies according to region, class, professional and personal choice. Some people only occasionally take part community worship for the local gods, while others dedicate themselves exclusively to a particular cult. Most people pray to specific gods in certain circumstances and certain times of life, such as housewives invoking Besech whilst lighting the fire, or sailors invoking Natrawul in rough seas.

There is generally no social requirement for any individual to follow a god, but children are usually initiated into the tradition of their family and community. Atheists do exist, but Anrelians believe that in a world obviously full gods, it is foolish not to gain the patronage of at least one. In former times tribe and nation often determined their choice of god. Today occupation and class, as well as location and nationality are important factors. Not everyone joins a formal cult, and some people change the god they worship during the course of their life. Some honour several gods (if they are compatible), or even none, but godless people cannot expect the protection or aid of a deity in times of need, and their spirit dies with them rather than living on with the god.

Some worship a primary god but pray to other gods at certain times. Some have no primary god, but make compacts at temples when the need arises. Belief, in Anrel, is a very personal thing. Harmonious living is encouraged, although the Hexact tries to be non-sectarian in its approach.

Belief in Anrel is expressed through thoughts, deeds and actions in service to a deity. All gods revel in certain types of human behaviour, and gods encourage their followers to follow a lifestyle compatible with their needs. The spiritual contract with the deity requires that worshippers maintain a certain state of mind through thought, prayer and action, according to the nature of the god, on a spectrum of human behaviour from positive to negative. In return for service, the deity listens to the prayers of the worshipper, bestowing good will and aid as needed.

Positive gods require altruistic acts of self-sacrifice, good works, non-violence, healing, helping others, charity and self-denial. Negatives revel in negative human behaviour: anger, violence, hatred, fear and destruction. Neutrals are essentially the gods of states, requiring a balance of behaviour between the two: contentment, arbitration, harmony, fairness, law, justice, honour and balance.

Worship of the negative natural gods is frowned on by the Hexact, but it is not outlawed. Negativity is part of the human balance, but followers of a negative path ultimately reap a terrible fate, consumed by their self-destructiveness. Negative cults re-emerge occasionally, but they are mercifully short-lived as their gods inevitably devour them.

There are a various deities throughout Anrel. Many of these were originally local or tribal gods, and it is still true that certain classes and types of people are likely to worship certain gods. For example, farmers commonly worship Cornelen , the ruling classes commonly honour Ketrorl .

Gods vary in their ritual needs; some worshipped solitarily or in small private groups, others in large public ceremonies. There is no great tradition of iconography in Anrel, because people believe the gods are astral beings, without human form. But most gods have a mythic form of manifestation, and paintings and sculptures of the gods do adorn public buildings and shrines.

All of the gods have a rich history of myths and stories related to them, but the people of Anrel have a common creation myth describing their descent from the Godmenplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigGodmen

The Godmen were the mythical inhabitants of a landmass contiguous with the modern Natorn Archipelago, said to be the ancestors of all the Thalsic peoples of the northern Civilised World. In the Emerald Epoch they created the first great civilisation, referred to as the Realm of the Godmen. The Godmen are said to be mytho-historic, memories of an ancestor race shrouded by millennia of HartheraAnrelAnrelherherAnrelAnrel. There are many variations, but greatest being saga of the Tirennion, which tells of times before and after the Creation:

In ancient times, the Earth was dark and foul, the bottom of a sea of stars. Unclean creatures were vomited up from the sea, crawling on the land in an eternity of darkness. But then The One, the hermaphrodite god, lit up the sky and descended to earth on a pillar of flame, burning clean the earth around It. The One spawned Mankind from its own belly, and set them to bring light, order and structure to the world. From Its flesh The One created all the clean creatures, the plants and the animals, to be the servants of Man, to feed him, carry him, aid him and clothe him. The One gave Man the gifts of speech and thought, gave him fire and tools, and ascended into the heavens to burn in the sky as the sun.

This myth enshrines the Anrelian “virid taboo”, in which the green kingdom is deemed krim, meaning right and clean, whereas all virid life is described as yabber, filthy and unclean. Eating, using or even touching anything yabber is taboo, because they deemed poisonous and a corrupting influence. This has some basis in fact- all of the poisonous and most predatory creatures are native, and few of them make good food. Anrelians, even worshippers of the darker gods, only eat the krim or clean, red-blooded animals, and the greenplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigGreen

The Green Kingdom of flora and fauna includes humans, mammals, birds, whales, greenfish, and most green plants and crops cultivated by humankind. plants seeded by the Ancients.

Unlike most of the world, the Anrel Isles were scoured of yabber creatures in ancient times, partly because of the relatively high human population density. Millennia ago the native ecology was burned and driven back. Native species are now only found in remote forests and mountains.]

These dietary laws are still very strictly carried out, not by law but by custom. Before contact with southerners this was never a problem, but foreigners, eating imported yabber spices and foods, suffer prejudice because of it.

Though many gods and spirits have been worshipped, since the Long War there has been an official pantheon of gods revered in state ceremonies, though others are worshipped regionally. All of the gods in Anrel mythology have their own origin myths. Some claim to have always existed, others are the shades of great spirits, or the gods of tribal ancestors. But all of them are “imminent gods”, who closely interest themselves in the lives of man. The One, and the Titan gods of the heavens, are far above and care nothing for petty mortal affairs.

However, the Lesser Gods deal with Mankind on a daily basis.

These are the gods of the heavens, the sun, stars, moons and planets. They circle far above earth, asleep in their endless dreams, and they have little or no interest in the affairs of mankind. The majority of uneducated Anrelians have probably never heard of them.

Eternity and Night - these are the first two supreme beings, the Father and the Mother. The Father is the veil of stars, the Mother is the black vault of the heavens.

These gods are essentially the fabric of reality, time and darkness. They are not worshipped, but respected, although in the past there have been minor cults of the Goddess of the Night Sky.

• Nom'es, Katr'es, Ahtr'es - the who fought to overthrow their parents, corresponding to the planets called (in the south): Nomezplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigNomez
  
  Nomez [NOM-ez] is a heavy, dense planet orbiting closest to the sun Cordes, in the Cronox System.
  
  Its surface is molten and constantly active, almost half of its surface being a sea of liquid sulphur and mineral salts. It has a toxic atmosphere of gaseous chlorine, bromine, sulphur, and phosphorus belched from the ever-active volcanoes, with clouds of light metals like lead and arsenic. This atmosphere is constantly eroded away by solar wind, leaving a glowing, flare-like trail in …, Kwato'orplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigKwato'or
  
  Kwato’or (KWAT-oh-oor) is the six planet of Cordes in the Cronox System.
  
  It is a gas supergiant, violent and beautiful, with titanic eternal storm systems coloured white and all shades from pale lilac to deep purple. It is a true giant, approximately 2.4 Jovian masses, so big that it causes the and Ahtreyplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigAhtrey
  
  Ahtrey is a small terrestrial world, second planet of the star Cordes in the Cronox System.
  
  The surface is mottled green-brown, pocked with crater lakes and shallow, mineral-rich seas thick with mats of simple protozoa. The seas are transient, depending on season and seismic activity.

• Kondr'es, Rart'es and Doh'es - the three defenders, corresponding to the planets Kondrayplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigKondray
  
  Kondray is the fifth planet of the star Cordes in the Cronox System, a massive ice world of frozen gas and dust. The surface is a crust of frozen gas and water, marked by mountains and crevasses of ice, sitting on a liquid layer warmed by pressure and gravity, surrounding a cold rocky core., Rahtérplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigRa and Ratér
  
  Ra (RAH) and Ratér (rah-TAIR) are mutually-orbiting binary planets in the Cronox System. The two are both marginal for human life but were settled many millennia ago. Rivalry and conflict between the two throughout their history laid the foundation for a series of accords for mutual co-operation, which was the foundation for the (seen as a single star despite being two planets) and Do_ahplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigDo'ah
  
  Do’ah (DOE-ah) is a small, lilac-white gas giant, the eighth planet of the star Cordes in the Cronox System. It is much smaller than its huge and tempestuous brother Kwato'or (0.26 Jovian-masses).
  
  Do'ah is most likely the only survivor of a number of medium-sized gas world that once circled Cordes, the others having been sucked into the hungry maw of Kwato’or. The planet has storm belts, but since Do'ah is relatively cool, they are simple convection storms coloured blue, red and purple….

• The One - the sun god, who circles the earth.

(Mythologies about the moons vary. In the north they are commonly called the Eye and the Discus, from tales in the Tirennion.)

• The Godmen - children of The One. These were the earliest humans, raised on god-food and so having powers to walk the stars and skies, and to create beasts and lesser gods.

These are the Anrelian deities of state, invoked in public ceremonies. In myth, the High Gods were petitioned by the ancient Heroes, and became the defenders of the early nations, promoters of virtue and good order. All the gods of state are called “High Gods”.

• Ketrorl - the Eagle-Headed Lord of Honourable Accord, god of justice.

• Minasaia - Mother goddess of Anrel, invoked for wisdom and healing.

• Nestaia - is the Shield Bearer, invoked for protection from harm.

These are called “Lower Gods”, but they are no less powerful. In mythology they are the spirits of the early earth, more properly called “wild gods” because peoples in early times called on them for power and favour. They are the gods of passion, for god or ill, who feed on the extremes of human emotion. There are many minor gods and Heroic demi-gods from ancient myth, but these are some of the notable ones:

• Besech - god of fire and the hearth, particularly respected in Narette

• Cornelen - goddess of the harvest and the green lands, particularly worshipped in rural areas

• Bremahk - god of the hunt, particularly revered by the indigenous tribes of Sensatard

• Natrawul - god of the sea and storms, he is respected particularly by seamen and travellers

The pantheon does not have a single god of death, nor do believers have a consistent view of what happens to a person after death. The most common belief is that after death the spirit travels to the Dry Lands, a dim place of comfort and peace, akin to sleep. In modern times the god Besech has become the keeper of the hearth of the Dry Lands.

Sailors often believe that drowned people are taken to the Halls of Natrawul, dwelling at the bottom of the ocean, while their wives prefer to believe they return to the Dry Lands of Besech.

Followers of Ketrorl believe that the most noble, who have served their country and their god, earn a place with him in the sky and live on the winds, able to look down from above on what passes in the living world.