Mithrai

Fight for glory! For yourself, for your country, for your cause - Mithrai cares not why. She revels in it all the same, in the clash of steel and the blast of a fireball. Create such a spectacle through your battles that Mithrai herself will be called down to watch.
—Excerpt from a speech by an unknown Razivian battle-warden

Mithrai (pronounced mith-RIGH) is a pantheonic goddess commonly associated with conflict, weapons, tactics, and healing.

Abanir pantheon

Uxtama (pronounced ooks-TAH-mah) the War-Horse is a goddess of war, strife, horses, and hunting. She is the patron of the targai, the nomadic peoples of the Aban Steppe. Uxtama is simultaneously caring and capricious, favoring only the strong and willing to abandon on a whim those she formerly smiled upon, yet going to great lengths to benefit those who keep her satisfied. Targai warriors and mercenaries commonly give tributes to Uxtama, as do herders, city guards, and others whose lives require the need for martial training.

Uxtama's holy animal is the horse, thought to be the goddess's first gift to the world. Originally granted to a tribe in the time before history, the horses escaped into the broader world after the tribe disappointed Uxtama through their complacency. In their role as holy animals, horses reflect the practicality of the goddess. They are venerated as gifts from the divine world, yet it is also completely acceptable to butcher them, eat their meat, and tan their hides, as nourishment and resources are no less important to maintaining one's strength than prayer.

Great effigies in equine forms dot the open steppe of Abanir, built by the targai clans in honor of the goddess. These wood and bone statues are constructed over the sites of fruitful hunts or victorious battles to let Uxtama see the results of her blessings.

Uxtama is usually depicted as a horse, painted and draped in bone ornaments.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Practice and hone your abilities, maintain your weapons and armor, defeat those who threaten you
Anathema: Ignore an issued challenge, allow others to fight your battles for you, mistreat a horse

Aserdian pantheon

Markab (pronounced MAR-cab) is a goddess of conflict, weapons, tactics, and healing. She is widely seen as a deity one worships out of necessity, prayed to when threatened and in need of strength. Many call upon her in times of strife, but in other times she remains a relatively minor deity in the pantheon. As is common with interpretations of the goddess across pantheons, Markab and her clergy do not condone mindless violence. An attack against a defenseless foe is a slaughter, not a fight. Victory is hollow against an enemy who can no longer pose a challenge.

Her followers vary widely, from tribal warriors to professional city guards to the herder that picks up a weapon to defend their flock. Her most devout frequently set up sparring matches with each other, using the ritualized violence as a form of prayer. Temples and priests of Markab are widespread, but they almost never preach or proselytize, as her followers prefer to learn from direct experience in the form of challenges sent from their goddess.

Markab is depicted as a scarred warrior, usually dressed in practical armor with minimal ornamentation and carrying some type of weapon, most often a spear. In some depictions her weapon is shown as broken, representing those that continue to fight for survival even when the odds are strongly against them. She is nearly always pictured in the company of an armored animal companion, usually either a large cat or a dinosaur.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Practice and hone your abilities, maintain your weapons and armor, heal a wounded fighter
Anathema: Seek out fights, kill or injure surrendered opponents, allow others to fight your battles for you

Chaskan pantheon

Mithrai (pronounced MITH-righ) is the goddess of conflict, weapons, tactics, and healing. She is closely associated with adventurers and those who willingly set out to brave the dangers of the world.

Mithrai's faithful vary widely in alignment, status, and role. She will accept any who prove themselves through combat, whether that be an honorable soldier, a greedy brigand, mercenaries, or something else entirely. She is also worshiped widely by many competitive fighters and others whose combat takes more codified and considerably less lethal forms. Battlefield medics, war clerics, and surgeons all count amongst her faithful as well. The goddess does not, however, condone mindless violence. An attack against a defenseless foe is a slaughter, not a fight. Victory is hollow against an enemy who can no longer pose a challenge.

Perhaps more so than with any other deity, followers of Mithrai frequently find themselves on opposing sides. To her devotees, to fight another of the faith is one of the highest forms of worship possible, an opportunity to show one’s mastery of their chosen form of combat. Clerics of Mithrai often seek each other out in order to issue challenges in the form of ritualized prayer-duels. Wargames carried out by commanders are often seen as a form of worship as well.

Born from the ferocity of the struggle between Socharin and Lotan at the dawn of creation, Mithrai embodies the violence of combat. The reason for the fight or the methods used are irrelevant to her - all that matters are the emotions, strength, and sheer bravery that get swept together into the maelstrom of battle. Mithrai is not only the patron of those that fight, however, but also of those that ensure combatants can live to spar another day. The healers, the protectors - all involved in battle are glorious to Mithrai, not only the warriors themselves.

According to many of her clergy, Mithrai is one of the most frequent allies of Harinna in her great divine battles against Lotan. She often steps back from this role, however, in order to ensure no side gains an advantage and the fighting continues unabated. The displays of prowess involved are so extraordinary, so it is said, that she is willing to risk giving Lotan a chance in order to make sure the battles never cease.

Followers of Mithrai generally eschew formal church structures. Temples to the goddess rarely officially affiliate with each other, though they generally maintain friendly if competitive relations. In places at war with each other, temples to Mithrai are often seen as neutral space where combatants can meet with the promise of protection.

The goddess' holy text is The Battle of the Gods, an epic poem narrating the tale of the fight between Lotan and the other gods at the beginning of creation. Followers to Mithrai often modify this poem to retroactively insert their saints into the epic, usually as attendants to the goddess.

Though the details vary heavily by culture and location, Mithrai is usually depicted as a battle-scarred soldier. Dressed in practical armor with minimal ornamentation and typically carrying a greataxe, most renditions of Mithrai are rather mundane in nature, rarely evoking direct divine symbolism. She is often depicted in the company of an armored animal companion, usually a large cat native to the region but sometimes another creature instead.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Seek opportunities for worthy fights, practice and hone your abilities, maintain your weapons and armor, heal a wounded fighter
Anathema: Ignore an issued challenge, kill or injure surrendered opponents, allow others to fight your battles for you, become complacent

Khapeshan pantheon

Maahes (pronounced MAH-hess) is a goddess of conflict, weapons, tactics, healing, and alcohol. The capricious goddess is simultaneously a fighter and a healer, one who can both cause grievous injuries and tend to wounds, all depending on her unpredictable whims.

Maahes is the patron of many disparate groups. Soldiers and adventurers worship her for her martial domains, while healers and herbalists do so in hopes of receiving divine guidance in tending to their patients. Her followers vary widely in alignment, as the goddess will accept any whose actions do not further the interests of Apep. Maahes is also the patron of brewers, who often invoke the goddess to bless their alcohol.

As the warrior of the gods, Maahes is one of Harakhte's most important attendants in the battles against Apep. Though the other gods rely on Maahes heavily to keep the Serpent at bay, they simultaneously fear her. Maahes' bloodlust after each nightly encounter is so great that she sometimes refuses to stop fighting after Apep retreats at the coming of the dawn, turning her violent attentions to the other gods instead. Every time she does so they lead her to one of the Rivers of the Dead, to a particular waterway said to flow with endless beer. Her attentions diverted, Maahes drinks until she calms and rests, forgetting her battles for a time. This is said to be the only way Maahes can be placated.

From their grand temple in Naqada, a city in lower Khapesh, the priesthood of Maahes provides guidance and instruction to the many other temples to the goddess that can be found across the kingdom. Temples to Maahes are extremely important places in most communities, as their clergy are expert healers renowned for their ability to treat nearly any injury or ailment through both magical and mundane means. Many travel Khapesh and abroad, serving as itinerant war clerics who solve the troubles of the places they venture, whether that come in the form of defeating local foes or tending to the sick.

Maahes is depicted as a lion-headed figure, often holding weaponry of various types.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Seek opportunities for worthy fights, practice and hone your abilities, maintain your weapons and armor, heal a wounded fighter
Anathema: Ignore an issued challenge, allow others to fight your battles for you, abstain from alcohol

Kirnashal pantheon

Mihr (pronounced MEER) the Instigator is a goddess of many domains, including beginnings and endings, healing, art, violence, and the day. She is the chaotic counterpart of Sraosheh and the divine embodiment of the cosmic force of change.

In the teachings of Mihr, change is the only constant. Frenzied and aggressive, she is driven by a ceaseless desire to transform and alter the world, even if these acts are only for their own sake. The goddess and her clergy promote artistic expression, creativity, and even violence at times.

Priests of Mihr are healers and fighters alike, as both creation and destruction lead to a changed world. Many are accomplished artists within the employ of the monarchs of Amshan, or otherwise seek outlets for creative expression in honor of their goddess.

Depictions of Mihr tend to be ostentatious, portraying the goddess as a humanoid figure in motion, clothed in elaborate and colorful robes bearing either intricate patterns or imagery of the sun. Mihr and Sraosheh are often portrayed as two halves of a whole, sometimes in a very literal manner as two faces on opposite sides of one head.

The clergy of Mihr and Sraosheh nearly always share temples and worship in close proximity to each other. In these temples Mihr's clerics create beautiful patterns in their sand floors every morning, which over the course of the day become indistinct and eventually erased completely by the ritual pacing of her followers. These acts represent the endless change brought by Mihr.

When the Scales tilt in Mihr's favor, the world becomes more chaotic, dynamic, and innovative.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Creatively express yourself, heal a wounded fighter, ask questions, seek opportunities to change the world
Anathema: Create repetitive or derivative works, become complacent, tolerate stagnancy, follow orders unquestioningly

Talgazan pantheon

Vihansa (pronounced vee-HAN-sah) is a goddess of healing, conflict, and weapons. She is both the patron deity of those that tend to the physical and psychological ailments of others as well as the goddess that aids mortals in inflicting such injuries. All knives are guided by Vihansa, whether the blade is intended to heal or harm.

Vihansa's faithful can vary widely, from the fiercest and toughest warriors to those that tend to their communities without lifting a hand in violence. Her two distinct sides are not seen as oppositional, however, but rather as inseparable. Sometimes to heal one it is necessary to harm another, but application of both must be measured and careful. The priesthood of the goddess teaches patience, planning, and forethought over actions borne of instinct or emotion.

Vihansa is usually depicted as a woman wearing a traditional healer's bone mask, armed with both an obsidian surgical blade and a spear.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Tend to the ailments of others, seek opportunities for worthy fights, maintain your weapons and armor, act carefully
Anathema: Kill or injure surrendered opponents, allow others to fight your battles for you, take hasty action

Taruhmite pantheon

Marhhish (pronounced mahr-HISH), the Bringer of Pain, is a goddess of disease, injury, undrinkable water, and pests. Of the five she is the most likely to act against specific individuals that displease her, rather than against their entire community, sending to them unbearable pain that they alone can feel. Once angered she keeps grudges forevermore, and even if placated through proper sacrifices may continue to punish those who offend her decades later.

Marhhish acts with great precision, dispensing retribution in ways carefully chosen to match the affront. Those who fail to give her the proper libations, for example, may find their particular well tainted and undrinkable, though if they attempt to quench their thirst from the well of another she will not hesitate to share her punishments. She may torment directly by refusing to let one slake their thirst or by inflicting some hurtful wound, or else indirectly through letting a disease fill her role for her.

The oracles tasked with interpreting Marhhish's omens are also commonly healers, working to limit the extent of her meddling by performing the proper rites, offering sufficient sacrifices, and tending to those afflicted by her touch should their previous efforts fail. Hers is the most diffuse and least centralized of all the Taruhmite churches. Cults worshiping Marhhish often attempt to unleash diseases in order to bring glory to their goddess.

As with other deities of the Taruhmite pantheon, Marhhish is given no appearance. Her omens commonly manifest as water that remains still regardless of the winds and the waves, unexplained small injuries, or insects that appear to watch one's activities.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: None
Anathema: None

Dwarven pantheon

Myrmoris (pronounced mer-MORE-iss) is a goddess of conflict, weapons, healing, and the dead. In the Dwarven pantheon the goddess takes on a rather protective form as the patron of guards who destroy those that threaten their towns and cities. She is a patient goddess who is willing to wait out her foes if necessary.

Myrmoris taught the first dwarves the importance of an active defense. One cannot rely only on being well-armored and fortified, as Tandlan teaches, but rather must actively seek out those who would cause grievous harm to your community and stop them before they can set such plans into motion. Soldiers, guards, and mercenaries often pray to Myrmoris, as do healers and herbalists.

Many dwarves see Myrmoris as a death goddess. She does not judge departed souls, as that falls under Tharrus' purview, but rather protects them. Interred bodies of the deceased are closely watched by both Myrmoris and her clerics, who often make the defense of tombs and mausoleums part of their regular duties.

Temples to Myrmoris often simultaneously serve other purposes as hospitals and clinics. Her clergy are well-known for their focus on healing magic, which they use freely to help all in need of tending.

Myrmoris is usually depicted as an older dwarven woman dressed in the black robes of an herbalist, holding medicinal herbs in one hand and a skull in the other.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Protect burial places, practice and hone your abilities, maintain your weapons and armor, heal the wounded
Anathema: Allow a threat to continue, ignore an issued challenge, kill or injure surrendered opponents