The 7 Empyrean gods ✎
- Ammonar: Ammonar, called the Lightbringer, the Lawgiver, and the Lord of the Dawn, is the god of light, law and creation. He is symbolized by the winged sun, and the eagle is his sacred animal.✎
- Calefa: Calefa is the Lady of Fortune, goddess of wealth and protector of the dead. Her symbol is a 7-spoked wheel, while her sacred animal is the raven. The Sisters of Mourning are her priestesses; they manage funerals, oversee wills and estates, and offer prayers for the dead. A secretive Imperial guild of assassins also serves under her aegis, following ritual rules of engagement to punish lawbreakers who escape other sanction.✎
- Istreus: Istreus is the Master of Secrets, god of knowledge, learning, and magic. His holy symbol is the crescent or the tower, while his sacred animal is the owl. The mages and scholars of the Tower of Knowledge pay him allegiance. His worship is conducted in secret, and only the initiated know the meaning of the mantra, “no sooner spoken than broken”.✎
- Ianna: Ianna is the Lioness, goddess of love and war. Her symbol is an eight-pointed star and her sacred animal is the lion. She has two orders of priestesses, the Dancers of the Veil and the Dancers of the Blade. The veil-dancers serve as courtesans, temple dancers, and sacred prostitutes during the Feast of Fertility. The blade-dancers are highly desired as bodyguards by the nobility.✎
- Mityara: Mityara is the Noble Lady, goddess of peace and civic duty. She is symbolized with either an ivory lady with her arm outstretched, or with an ivory torch. Her sacred animal is the dove. Her priestesses are known as the Keepers of the Hearth Fire; they maintain the sacred fires and pure waters of the city, oversee ceremonies such as marriage and childbirth, control censorship of the arts, and may pardon any criminal.✎
- Naurivus: Naurivus is the Patron of Explorers, god of travel, water, and weather. His symbol is the galley, and his sacred animals are the dog, the horse, and the dolphin. He is also known as the Lord of Winds, and sailors praise and curse him. The Imperial Company of Explorers, whose men and women serve as scouts and navigators around the empire, hold him as their patron deity.✎
Similar deities or analogues appear in all of the major cultures. For example, an Ammonar-like god known as Aldfodr or All-Father is worshipped by the Jutlanders and Rornish. A sun deity called Manannan is worshipped by the elves of Argollë. Both Aldfodr and Manannan are symbolized by a spear over the sun and venerated as the father of the gods.✎
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The Chthonic pantheon ✎
- Iskara – The Demon Queen, goddess of chaos, evil, darkness, and destruction.✎
- Dirgion – The Doom Lord, god of hellfire, doom, and destruction.✎
- Kaleth – The Blasphemer, god of profanity, obscenity, and madness.✎
- Bel – The Slaughterprince, god of anger, violence, and killing.✎
- Galmorm – The Poisoner, god of lies, treachery, and subterfuge.✎
- Nasga – The Serpent, goddess of seduction, adultery, and decadence.✎
- Raviled – The Bitter Prince, god of despair, woe, and regret.✎
- Nargund – The Dusk Wolf, god of predators, hunting, and night.✎
- Ornaron – The Godfather of Storms, brother of Rapanor, one of the gods of storms.✎
- Rapanor – The Thundermaker, brother of Ornaon, one of the gods of storms.✎
- Lammala – The Sea Mother, goddess of the murky depths and tidal waves.✎
- Telith – The Great Earth Elemental, goddess of earthquakes and volcanoes.✎
Of these, Kaleth, Lammala, and Telith usually take the form of alien horrors, while Dirgion, Galmorm, Raviled and Nasga are most frequently anthropomorphic. Iskara usuallly appears as a dragon, Bel as a four-armed demon, Nargund as a giant wolf. The word chthonic is actually a Greek word that refers to “gods beneath the earth” or “gods of the underworld.” The chthonic gods were worshipped at night, underground, and received ritual sacrifices (usually animals) burned or buried alive. Jungian psychologists align the chthonic gods as representing the unconscious spirit within, the Id - including envy, lust, sensuality, deceit, etc. From this Greek derivative, I conceived of the Chthonic gods as being an ancient pantheon that is associated with darkness, the underworld, the earth, and with all of the irrational passions of man. These contrast with the Empyrean deities, associated with the air, the sky, the stars, the light of reason.✎